


The Gifted Ones (hiatus)

by porlmethyst



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Drama, F/M, Family Drama, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fluff, I Made Myself Cry, I Will Go Down With This Ship, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Pregnancy, also sorry this chapter is kind of long, i think i'm going to add more characters as i go, it's pretty lighthearted for the most part, oh my god i love these two so fucking much, woah this is longer than i thought it would be
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2018-06-29
Packaged: 2019-03-02 13:58:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 27,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13319610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/porlmethyst/pseuds/porlmethyst
Summary: Five years after the great battle with Homeworld, a big chapter in everyone's lives comes to a close. However, with one part of their lives over, Steven, Connie, Lars and Sadie make way for a new life to spend with their significant other. Everything's great at first, until one day, things take a turn for the unexpected and soon Lars and Sadie find themselves on a long, emotional journey that neither of them were prepared for.





	1. How to Expect the Unexpected

**Author's Note:**

> hey guys! i'm back with another fic! this idea for a fic was on my mind since may actually, and i'm going to make you listen to the story of how i came up with the idea. 
> 
> it was may 28, and that was the day i failed my swimming exam, and i was really bummed about it because i was the only girl in the class that didn't pass. i came home upset, and i decided to draw for a little bit to help cheer me up. it was already a day before the wanted special, and the pink lars leaks were already out a few days before and everyone was going crazy for them, and unfortunately i was spoiled before the episodes came out. pink lars was now a thing, and at the time, i was (and still am) a hardcore larsadie shipper. so it got me thinking: lars is pink now, probably forever, so IF he had a kid with sadie, there'd probably be some sort of traits that would make them stand out, right? i mean, pink isn't a natural hair colour, so i thought imagining what their child would look like could be fun! eventually within thirty minutes i kept on building the world and the society that they would now be living in and it was the most fun i've had in a long time. i've been thinking about it a lot recently so i thought: why not make it a fanfic? so now, this exists.
> 
> sorry if i lost you there, but now, i'm just super excited to share what i have! for a first chapter, i'd say this is pretty long. (microsoft word counted 13 pages with 5347 words) jesus, that was longer than i thought it would be. if you like this chapter, then trust me, i think you're going to love the rest way more :) 
> 
> want to follow me on other platforms? i have these!
> 
> instagram: @larsadietrash  
> tumblr: @larsadie-fanatic
> 
> thank you so much if you've read this far! every single view means a lot to me! don't forget to leave kudos or comments, and feel free to share this with your friends who also might like this fic! thank you so much again, and i hope you enjoy! happy reading!

It’s been five years since the great battle with Homeworld. Steven and the gems fought for many days and nights, but for what seemed like eternity, had finally ended, and a great weight had been lifted off upon all of their shoulders. As expected, after the great battle, they went out for pizza after they’ve saved the day, just like in Steven’s song. Although with nothing to worry about, the crystal gems had a hard time adjusting to the fact that the war that started over 5000 years ago had finally ended. Their lives were peaceful now, too peaceful for them anyways. They kept sharp, and stayed the skilled warriors that they were, just in case something unexpected came along, like a lost corrupted gem that needed to be bubbled, or even some enemy greater than that. Steven however, had no trouble adapting that a big chapter in his life had come to a close, and he had way less trouble when it was time for him to make way for a new life. When they went to space together to bring Lars back to earth, Steven and Connie told each other their hidden feelings, and were surprised to learn that they had more than just mutual affection for each other. At first, their love for each other was pure and innocent, and had stayed true to each other, defending their home planet together in the great war. Now that that part of their life of fighting alongside each other had come to a close as well, they had more time to spend, and in those years developed a healthy and stable relationship. Steven grew into quite a good-looking young man, and Connie grew into a beautiful young woman. Though they were only 19 years, they still acted like the happy go lucky kids that they were when they were younger. The gems fawned over the loving relationship Steven and Connie had for each other while Steven and Connie did the same towards Lars and Sadie. Lars and Sadie were a solid, happy couple. They took it slow, and came to terms with their feelings for each other. They loved each other very much. Lars being on Homeworld was torture for both of them, and their arms longed for each other’s embrace for the longest time. Once they finally confessed in front of Steven and Connie and began dating, Steven was living the ultimate dream of watching his favourite pairing of two people finally come true right in front of his eyes. Now Lars and Sadie were still dating, going on for five years and counting. They do spend a lot more time together, and whenever Steven sees them, they’re mostly together. Sometimes he sees Lars give affectionate little kisses on the cheek that makes Steven grin suggestively, and Lars, having gotten closer with Steven since their Homeworld experience, nudges him in a brotherly manner. Him and Sadie have gotten intimate sometimes. Though it wasn’t often, those blissful moments they had together were everything to him. Recently, they’ve had one of those days and just needed to kick back relax with each other. The rest of the day happened in a blur, and Lars doesn’t remember the rest of it. Come to think of it, he was pretty Sadie sure doesn’t remember what had happened that night either. It was a fantastic night, though, and that’s all Lars could really think about going back to the events that took place that evening. However, even though they don’t remember that night too well, they certainly will when they find out some unexpected news that no one was expecting.

 

 

Sadie came home on a crisp autumn day. Her hands were already cool when she jangled her keys coming into her house. It was getting colder, and she wasn’t a big fan of it. She made her way into her house, and was then taken aback by the heat levels in the house. She almost fainted it was so warm in the house. She turned the corner to find her mom in the kitchen cooking soup at the stove. “Hiya, Sadie!” Barb called. “You’re home early, how was your day?”

 

“It was fine. I just didn’t really feel great, so I clocked out early.” Sadie spoke as she hung up her coat and fixed her hair from the cool wind from outside.

 

“Aw that’s fine, sweetie. It’s Friday!” Barb picked up the soup ladle and tasted the soup in it. She seemed satisfied with the taste, and poured a bowl for herself. She then turned around to face Sadie. “You want some, dear? Maybe you’ll feel better.”

 

She was about to decline and head straight to her room, but she always loved her mother’s cooking. It always cheered her up. “That’d be great.”

 

Barb got an extra bowl out for Sadie and poured her some soup. The two of them sat at a small rounded table in their kitchen, quietly talking about how their day at work went. Being in her mother’s company always made her cheerful. “So, how’s Lars?” Barb asked.

  

“He’s fine I think. I’m pretty sure he’s been busy with work though, too. I haven’t heard from him in two days. I think I’ll text him later.” Sadie answered and sat up from her chair, putting her bowl in the sink. “Mind if I head to my room?”

  

“Of course not, honey. Oh, by the way, I have something for you.” Barb turned around and handed Sadie a box of oyster crackers. Sadie smiled and hugged her mom. She could always count on her to make her feel better. Sadie went up to her room, popped in some horror movies and watched with her oyster crackers by her side. A little past seven thirty, and Sadie started to feel ill once again. Her gaze turned towards her phone, wondering if she should talk to Lars. She was pretty lonely, and wished for someone’s company. She reached for her phone and typed out a text.

 

> Sadie: Hey, what’s up? Haven’t heard from you in a while. Miss you. <3

 

Sadie sent the text and waited for him to respond. She continued watching the movie, trying to ignore her stomach pains. About twenty minutes later, her phone lit up, and Sadie turned to her device and opened the text, which was from Lars.

 

> Lars: sorry sadie. my family and i are on a road trip down south. there was no service at where we were staying and i couldn’t text you sooner. we’re coming home tomorrow night. hope i see you soon. love you

 

Sadie felt warmth spread across her cheeks. She wanted him more than anything. Her arms longed for his embrace.

  

> Sadie: My arms are wide-open waiting for you <3

 

> Lars: and so are mine :)

 

 Sadie smiled and closed her phone. She wished for Lars’ company right in that moment. She wanted to feel him lay next to her as they cradled each other in their sleep. Hopefully they’d be doing that soon. Sadie turned off her television and lamp. She pulled the covers over her head and looked at the digital clock across her room in bright neon letters. It was only quarter to eight, yet she was already so exhausted. Sadie went to sleep within ten minutes, and she had hoped that tomorrow would come soon.

 

* * *

 

 

Sadie woke up the next morning with beams of sun lighting her room up. She had only opened her eyes for a brief moment before she felt like she was going to regurgitate. Sadie flung the covers off of her and had barely even made it to the bathroom. She felt so dazed she felt like she was going to faint. Luckily she didn’t. She stayed hung over the toilet for many moments longer, at this point completely forgetting about the fact that Lars would be coming home today. Sadie kept throwing up every ten to fifteen minutes or so; after a while she didn’t even notice. Everything was a blur.

 

 Eventually, Barb came upstairs to check on her. To her, it was rather odd. Most days, Sadie was a morning person. Maybe today wasn’t one of those days? She didn’t know, which was the whole point of checking on her in the first place. “Sadie! Wake up my beautiful darling, it’s nearly—“

 

She wasn’t in her bed. The only thing she saw was sheets and pillows. She looked around her daughter’s room, and saw the bathroom door was closed. As if on instinct, Barb went straight for the door. “Sadie?” Barb looked around the bathroom and finally saw Sadie on the ground, hung over the toilet. She turned her head slowly and looked up at her mom, feeling as tired and groggy as ever, as if she got no sleep at all. “Mom? Is that you?” Sadie spoke still hazed.

  

“Oh my beautiful angel, what happened? Why are you so sick this morning?” Barb knelt down next to her daughter and pulled her hair out of her face.

  

“I haven’t the slightest idea.” Sadie answered. “What time is it?”

  

“It’s almost ten.”

  

Sadie sighed. “Been here for an hour and a half.”

 

“Oh Sadie,” her mother hugged her from behind. “I’m so sorry this happened to you. Tell you what,” Barb stood up. “Coincidentally, I came up to tell you that I have a doctor’s appointment today. It starts in hour and I was about to leave and tell you. If you wanted to come…” Barb spoke softly while stroking her golden yellow hair. “Y’know, if you came with me, we could probably find out what’s wrong with you? The doctor might prescribe some medication if it’s serious and then you’ll be back to normal in no time! How does that sound, sweetie?”

  

The offer was tempting. If this were something more serious than it seemed, she would want something to help treat it so she could go back to feeling just as she did before. “Y-yeah, sounds good.”

  

“That’s good to hear.” Barb kissed Sadie on her head and helped her regain her strength to stand. “Wash up, sweet pea! We gotta leave in about ten minutes!”

  

“Sure thing, mom!”

  

Sadie didn’t realize it, but last night she was so tired she slept in her clothes from the day before. Such a weird feeling it was to her. She changed her outfit and went back into the bathroom to wash her face quickly. She got a cloth and rubbed her face gently. Feeling parched, she cupped her hands together and let water run into the cup her hands made. She drank from it eagerly. Her throat quenched, it was as if she hadn’t drank in a long time. She looked back up at herself in the mirror, and noted the scar she had on her cheek. It’d almost been unnoticeable, heck; she barely even remembered she had one half the time. Whenever she looked at it, her mind always went back to when her, Steven and Lars were trapped on Mask Island together. Somehow, in all the roughing it they had done for many days and nights, it just showed up one day. She never knew how it did, but it did, and now it was just a friendly reminder of the first time she had pressed her lips against the one she cared about the most.

  

“Sadie!” Barb called up, which had brought Sadie back to the present. “You ready to go?”

  

“Yeah, I’m coming!” Sadie went downstairs and set outside with her mom, suddenly remembering where she was going and why. She felt much better than before for sure, but deep down she had a feeling that her ailment wasn’t going to go away anytime soon.

 

* * *

 

Barb and Sadie arrived at the doctors’ office about ten minutes to, and walked in, being admitted in no time. Once Sadie’s mother went off for her appointment, Sadie remained in he waiting room, watching the television in the top corner with no sound on. About five minutes later she picked up a magazine and started reading until her mother got back, and it wasn’t until around 11:30 until she did. Her mother came out, and she saw someone else beside her mother from the corner of her eye. “Sadie Miller?” The doctor called.

  

Despite knowing she was going to get checked out as well, she was still taken aback. Sadie got up and followed the doctor back into the same room Barb came out of. The doctor closed the door and turned back toward them. “So, what’s going on?”

  

Sadie was about to answer, but her mother had started to speak before she could even get a word out. “Sadie was fine last night, but this morning when I went to check on her I found her in the bathroom, and she told me she’d been in there for… how long was it?”

  

“Um… almost two hours?” Sadie answered.

  

“Oh my, could you have eaten something that could’ve made you sick?” The doctor asked.

  

“Well, I did have oyster crackers, but I eat hem all the time no problem, so I don’t think that was the case.”

 

“Maybe.” The doctor started jotting down something on her clipboard, pen travelling across paper a hundred miles a second. “What else about last night? Did you do any unusual activities?”

  

“No, all I did was watch movies and texted my boyfriend.”

  

The doctor finally looked up from her clipboard, her glasses now rested at her nose and she pushed them back closer to her eyes. “You have a boyfriend?”

  

“Yes?” Sadie answered, starting to wonder where this conversation was going to go. Thankfully for her, the questions were over, and the doctor stood up.

  

“Alright, I’m just going to run some blood tests, and then provide some medication to help control your nausea. I’ll get the room ready. I’ll come get you once I’m done.” The doctor closed the door, leaving Sadie and Barb alone.

  

“Tests? Sadie scrunched her face. “Mom, I thought you said we wouldn’t be long.”

  

“I thought so too, honey. But maybe this is more serious than we think it is.”

  

Sadie sighed and sunk into her chair. “Gee, I sure hope not.” Having something seriously wrong with her was the last thing she needed right now.

  

The doctor eventually came back and Sadie was taken to a room so they could take samples of her blood. Four samples of her blood were taken from her, and Sadie came back almost 45 minutes later feeling absolutely drained of her energy. Sadie found her mother and stayed close to her for the rest of the time. The doctor came back soon after with Sadie’s medication, looking back down at her clipboard. “That should help with the nausea.” The doctor spoke almost in monotone. “Take one in the morning, and one before you go to bed. Oh, and the test results should come back within 48 hours or so, so we’ll give you a call once they’re ready.”

  

“Thank you so much.” Barb said. “Let’s go, Sadie.” Sadie followed behind her mom feeling lousy. She didn’t feel sick, just really really tired, and was silent for the car ride home. As soon as her mother opened the door to the house, Sadie headed right in, and started to make her way to her room. “Hey Sadie, are you feeling okay? You didn’t talk much on the way home.” Barb asked her.

  

‘Yeah, I guess I’m still tired. Can I go back to bed?” Sadie asked her.

  

“Of course my angel. I’ll be down here if you need anything.” Barb responded and disappeared into the kitchen. Sadie made her way up to her room and flopped onto her bed. Within seconds she fell fast asleep.

 

* * *

 

Sadie jolted awake, and ran to the bathroom again. After about twenty minutes, she felt fine and looked around. Assuming it was late at night, she checked her clock. It was only 7:10 in the evening. She got up and drank some water from the sink. She went back into her room and took some of the medication for her nausea. It wasn’t as bad as it was in the morning, which was good, but she knew this sickness wasn’t going away anytime soon. She felt her legs were going to give away if she stood up any longer, so she hopped back onto her bed. She cleared her mind for a brief moment, and then went reached over for her phone. Sadie barely got any messages from anyone, so she expected the same thing, but was however surprised that she _did_ have notifications:

 

> Lars <3: 7 missed calls

 

She’d completely forgot that Lars had finally come home today. She’d felt horrible and called him immediately. Eventually, Lars picked up. “Sadie?”

 

“Oh my gosh, Lars, I’m so sorry I haven’t called back. I was—“

  

“Hey hey, slow down there, Sades.” Lars interrupted. “I’m just happy you’re doing okay. I stopped by earlier, but no one was home. Where were you?”

  

Sadie sighed. “Okay, well, this morning I wasn’t feeling well, so I went to the doctors.”

 

“For what?”

  

“I had nausea all morning; it was pretty bad.”

 

“Gosh Sadie, I’m so sorry.” Sadie could hear in Lars’ voice that he really wanted to see her. “What did they say?”

  

“Well they gave me some medication for it, but they took blood tests too. It was kinda weird.” Sadie spoke.

  

“Blood tests for nausea? That’s strange.”

  

“I know, but whatever, honestly I just wanted to get out of there. I was drained once I finally came home.” Sadie lowered her voice. “I can’t believe I forgot you were coming home today.”

  

“Sadie, listen, forget about it.” Lars told her. “I’m just glad you’re doing better. I was worried when you wouldn’t answer my calls.”

  

“I know.” Sadie threw her head back. “Lars?”

  

“Yeah?”

  

“I really want to hug you.”

 

Sadie didn’t know, but on the other end Lars turned a deep shade of red, despite his natural pink skin. He felt warm, and was overcome with a feeling of protectiveness. “Aw Sades,” he smiled. “I want to hug you too.”

 

“Well, like, a long hug, y’know?”

  

“Yeah, except I wanna hold you in my arms for the longest time and I want to feel you lying next to me if that doesn’t sound weird but like—“ He caught himself and finally exhaled. “You mean so much to me, I guess I just can’t help missing you.”

 

“Lars! You’re such a dork! I miss you too!” Sadie couldn’t help but smile. “You free tomorrow?”

 

“I am indeed. What are you suggesting?” Lars smirked.

  

“Well, it’s been forever since we went somewhere…”

 

“Are you saying we should go out?” Lars sounded excited.

 

“I mean, only if you want to of course.”

 

“Ha! Of _course_ I want to go! So, what do you wanna do?”

 

“Don’t know, it _is_ last minute, you wanna just see where the day takes us?”

 

“That’d make my whole weekend.” Lars smiled.

 

“Awesome!” Sadie looked at her clock, which now read 9:35. “Getting late. So see you tomorrow on the boardwalk? What time?”

 

“How about 10?”

 

“Sounds good! Can’t wait to see you soon~”

 

“Me either.” Sadie could hear the excitement in Lars’ voice. “Night Sadie, I love you.”

 

“I love you too.”

 

Sadie hung up. She finally couldn’t wait to see Lars. It felt like forever since they’d last shared a kiss. She longed for him, but knew that once tomorrow would come, all the waiting would have been worth it. She got into her pajamas and slipped into bed, eventually falling asleep, hoping that tomorrow would be as amazing as she hoped it would be.

 

* * *

 

The next morning, Sadie woke up, bracing for the nausea that always bombarded her in the morning. Nothing had happened. She went downstairs finding that her mom had already gone out to work. Sadie made herself a coffee and went into the living room and turned on the television. She waited for her usual morning sickness to come hit her, but after a while, it never did. She thought the medication had finally started to work, and finally got up and started to get ready for the day. When it came to her and Lars, nothing needed to be super fancy, just casualness, and they just went with the flow and tried to not be super extra about it. They didn’t mind, because all they really cared about was seeing each other a lot. Sadie finally headed out, and headed over to the boardwalk. She sat down on a nearby bench and waited for Lars to show up. About five minutes later, she caught a glimpse of something pink in the corner of her eye. She turned to her right and saw Lars waiting for her. To be completely honest, it wasn’t that hard to find him in a big crowd. He was quite tall, and the only pink being that lived in the town, or quite possibly the world. A smile spread across her face and she made her way over to him. “Lars!”

 

Lars whirled around and saw who was approaching him. His face lit up and he made his way over to her. Lars bent down and hugged her tightly. “My god! I missed you so much! It feels like it’s been forever.”

 

“I know right! Now we _gotta_ make up for lost time.” Sadie spoke sounding relieved.

  

“Exactly. Which is why I thought we should just unwind a little bit today.” Lars spoke softly and moved her hair out of her face. “Do you trust me?”

  

“Of course.”

  

Lars leaned in and kissed her. “Great! Now let’s get going!”

  

They held hands and walked around for a bit on the boardwalk just talking and catching up. It was only three hours after noon when things started to happen. For Sadie, things started to blur. Everything became hazy and she couldn’t really remember what had just happened. She felt supper dizzy, as if she was going to throw up. Great, just what she needed on a perfect day. She pondered on whether she should tell Lars about what was going on. No, she thought. They haven’t seen each other in a while, and everything was already going so perfect. Besides, she wouldn’t want him to worry about her just yet. She remained calm and just went with the flow of things. Lars occasionally asked her if she was alright, but said she was doing fine each time. The day went on, and now it was well into the evening. Lars was now taking Sadie to a place where she didn’t know they were going. It was just a shortcut to the shore. “As obvious as it sounds, I thought we could end the day with watching the sun set.”

  

They found a nice place to sit on the sand and watched the sun slowly go down behind the ocean Just before it did however, Lars turned and saw Sadie lying down with a hand over her face. “Uh Sades, you doing okay?”

  

“What? Oh yeah, I’m having fun. Why?”

  

“I don’t know, you just seem like you’re not doing so great. Is there something going on?”

  

Sadie looked back down. A smile then appeared on her face. “Lars,” she began. “You’re my best friend. And boyfriend. You know I’d tell you if something was wrong, don’t you?”

  

“I know. I’m just a little worried.”

  

“I know you are.” Sadie leaned onto Lars and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Trust me though, everything’s going to be fine.”

  

“I trust you.” Lars pulled Sadie close and finally exhaled. They continued to watch the sunset together.

 

* * *

 

 

10:12 pm. Sadie finally came home and slammed the door shut. “Oh god.” Sadie groaned. “I can’t believe that happened.”

  

“Sadie? Is that you?” Barb called. “Come in, I haven’t seen you all day! Where’ve ya been?”

  

“Just spent the day with Lars, mom.”

 

Barb gasped in excitement. She always liked hearing about what Lars and Sadie did together on their nights out. “Oh Sadie that’s wonderful! You wanna tell me about it?”

  

“Well, I wished it could’ve gone better—“

  

“What did he do?” Barb was quick to jump to conclusions.

 

“W-what? No mom, Lars didn’t do anything. Honestly, I think it was all my doing.”

 

“Sadie what are you talking about?”

 

“Mom I don’t know what’s going on with me, but I felt so light headed all day. I felt like I was going to faint!”

 

“Did ya tell him that?”

 

“Actually, no. We were having such a good day so far and—“ Sadie took a breath. “I just felt like me telling him what was wrong with me was the last thing we needed in our day today. Other than that I had a great time though. We watched the sun set together. It was nice.”

 

“Oh Sadie, well I’m sorry that happened. Do you think it had something to do with the nausea?”

  

“I’m not sure, it was pretty warm today, so it could’ve just been the heat that got to me.”

  

“Maybe,” Barb wondered. “Oh, speaking of which, the doctors called! Your tests are finally in! They want us to come in first thing tomorrow. Sound good?”

 

“Already? That was quick. Sure, I’m down.”

 

“Great. Get some rest then, kiddo! Can I get you anything before I head off to bed?”

  

“No thanks, I’m tired too, to be honest.”

  

“Well alright then. Goodnight sweetie.”

  

“Night mom.”

  

Sadie went straight to bed. Tomorrow, she’d finally know what’s wrong with her so that they can finally treat it, and put this whole thing behind her. However, little did she know, treating it wasn’t going to be as easy as she thought it was going to be.

 

* * *

 

 

Sadie and her mother woke up then next morning and quickly made their way to the doctor’s office. After waiting for a few minutes, the same doctor from before called them in, holding a few sheets of paperwork, which held the test results. “Oh please doctor, is it good or bad news?” Barb asked.

  

“Well, it depends what you want to call it.” The doctor spoke.

 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Barb asked confused.

 

“It’s just; I don’t know how to break this to you guys. So however you want to interpret this news as good or bad really depends on you.” The doctor breathed in and turned to Sadie. “Sadie, was it?”

 

Sadie nodded.

  

“Well Sadie, the tests confirmed that you are currently three weeks into pregnancy.”

  

Those words. She couldn’t have been hearing the right thing. This couldn’t have been actually happening, right? But the more she thought about it, the more it had made sense. Holy crap, this was actually happening. She couldn’t believe it.

 

“W-what?! Are you people outta your minds?! Let me see that.” Barb quickly got up and looked at the test results for herself. Her eyes widened, for what the doctor had told them was true. “Sadie, how—“

  

Sadie finally snapped out of her trance and came back to reality. “No, mom. Not now. No questions. Please, let’s just go home.”

  

Sadie and her mother walked out of the office and got into the car and drove home. Immediately, Sadie went to her room. She needed to be alone with her thoughts. How did she even get pregnant? She was baffled. Obviously, it had to be Lars’ kid. He was the only person who she’d ever had sex with. She was sure that they were careful though, but the night it happened they probably weren’t thinking. She was upset with herself. But as the day went on, the more she thought about it, and she became less upset and more surprised. I mean, she actually couldn’t believe it. Her and Lars, they actually did it. They actually… wow. There was something nice about that, it seemed. Sadie didn’t know if she wanted it or not. She loved Lars very much, and the fact that they actually were able to conceive was mind blowing to her. If she got an abortion, everything go back to the way it was. But then she would never have seen what their child would look like, and as crazy as she probably sounded, she wanted to see how he or she would look like. She thought way into the future, and wondered if she had decided to keep the child, what kind of person would they grow into, what adventures they would make and the new places they would discover. Sadie felt insane for thinking this, but she really wanted to see how things would unfold if she kept it. Although, one thing was holding her back from making her final decision, and that was Lars. What would he say? Obviously, he would have the same reaction as her. Overwhelmed. But who wouldn’t be? And if he were to say no, why, she certainly couldn’t handle the job of raising their child on her own. She would need him more than ever. Plus, if she kept it when he didn’t want to, their relationship would slowly fall apart. Sadie definitely didn’t want that, because heck, after all the obstacles they faced trying to end up together, she wasn’t about to give up a good thing she had going. After more careful thinking, she’d come up with a decision. She wanted to keep it, and if Lars agreed, then they’d raise it together. If he didn’t agree, she would have to get an abortion, because there would be no way she’d be able to raise their child without him. After many hours, Sadie felt a big weight being lifted off her shoulders. Now, at least she knew what she wanted to do with it. Sadie finally went downstairs and found her mother on the couch. “Mom? Can I talk to you for a sec?”

 

“Of course, Sadie.” Barb spoke as her and Sadie went into the kitchen. Barb made some tea for the both of them and the two sat down. “Are you doing okay?”

 

“Yeah, mom. I’m feeling more calm now.”

 

“Do you… uhh, have some idea of what you want to do about… this?”

 

“Actually, yeah, I do.”

 

Barb listened, and Sadie explained everything that she thought about, and what she now wanted. “Well Sadie, I’m not going to tell you what to do. It’s just, are you super sure this is what you want?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Barb got up and hugged her daughter. Sadie was alarmed, as she wasn’t sure how her mother would react to her decision. “Oh Sadie,” Barb whispered. “I’m so happy for you.”

 

Sadie sighed in relief, and hugged her mother back. “Thanks mom.”

 

“So, when’re you gonna tell Lars?”

 

“Soon, hopefully.” Sadie replied. “I kind of hope he says yes? I mean, I really want this child, you know?”

 

“Oh Sadie I understand perfectly.” Barb spoke. “After all I _did_ have you—“ Barb paused. “Oh my gosh. Sadie do you know what this means? I’m gonna be a grandmother!” Barb said excitedly.

 

“Yes yes, I know, but remember: you _might_ be one. Nothing’s confirmed until we find out what Lars wants.” Sadie reminded her.

 

“Ah yes, of course. But there’s a fifty percent chance I _could_ be one, and that fifty percent of me is feeling really happy right now!”

 

Sadie smiled. She was happy her mother was excited and supportive of her decision. “Anyways, I’m glad we talked, but I’m really tired now. I think it’s been a long day for both of us don’t you think?”

 

“Definitely. This was one of the best days of my life you know!” Barb told her. “Anyways, goodnight Sadie, I’ll see you tomorrow!”

 

“Goodnight, mom.” Sadie smiled. Sadie headed back up to her room for a well-deserved good nights sleep. After the craziest day she had so far, she looked back on it, and realized she had learned something incredible today. She was going to be a mother.


	2. Putting it Simply

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sadie eventually tells Lars, and after careful thinking, Lars comes to a decision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys! thanks for continuing to read this fic! this chapter is much shorter compared to the last one, and not much happens in it. also, i've upped the language a little, meaning there's probably going to be more curses coming from the characters from here on out. i'm super excited to get started on the other chapters! so here it is! i hope you guys enjoy!

Sadie woke up early next morning with a slight headache. Her soft golden hair was frizzed and covering a bit of her face. Her memory of the previous night slowly came back to her. She finally got up after a moment longer and started to make her way downstairs. Halfway down, a pleasant scent wafted in the air. Sadie kept walking and found that the scent was coming from the kitchen, and found her mom cooking at the counter. Barb glanced and saw her daughter. “Good morning Sadie! Did ya sleep well pumpkin?”

 

“Fine mom, but what’s all this?”

 

“For you of course! Y’know, since you’re pregnant and all.”

 

“I was like, three weeks ago.” Sadie told her.

 

“Yes yes, but not everyone gets the chance of being a grandmother! I just can’t believe it!”

 

“Me either.” Sadie spoke barely above a whisper.

 

Sadie and her mom both ate breakfast. After Sadie got ready for her day. What would she do? Tell Lars today? She didn’t want to tell him too soon, but waiting too late could be worse. She went back upstairs and flopped on her bed. She really wanted to see him, but felt it would be a little off putting. She was carrying their child and he didn’t even know. She couldn’t even imagine what it was like being oblivious to such information like that. She kind of felt for him, because knowing Lars, there’s no way he’d take this lightly, so she’s expecting the worse. As if on que, Sadie’s phone started ringing. Low and behold it was Lars calling. Jesus christ, just talking to him at this point made her feel slightly uneasy. She answered it eventually and let him talk first. “Hey Sades. I know we didn’t plan anything today, but I really need to see you.”

 

 _“Crap,”_ she thought. _“Why’d it have to be so soon?”_ Sadie took a breath and decided to play along. “Really?” She smirked. “Why’s that? You miss me?”

 

“C’mon Sadie, quite calling me out like this!” Lars joked. “How can I stay away when you’re literally the most beautiful person in the world?”

 

_“Shit, he’s being cute again.”_

 

“Oh fuck Lars, I love you so much.”

 

“Jesus Sadie, that was unexpected. I love you too. And uh, you know,” Lars’ voice went lower. “It’s been awhile since we last ‘got close’ if you know what I mean. What do you say later tonight at my place?”

 

“ _God_ yes.” Sadie spoke before remembering her situation. “Wait, no, I mean, let’s wait a little bit?” Was all she could get out feeling flustered.

 

“Darn, it’s up to you then. Soon though?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“‘Kay. Wish I could kiss you through the phone, Sades. Can we meet later?”

 

“Sure if you want to.” Sadie paused. Should this be the day where she tells him what’s going on? Sadie let out a breath. It’s now or never right? “I… also have to tell you something too.”

 

“That’s cool. See you later?”

 

“Mhm.” Sadie hummed.

 

“Cool. Love you.”

 

Lars hung up and Sadie buried her face into her pillow. She knew he wasn’t going to like it one bit.

 

 

A couple hours later, Sadie found herself on the boardwalk waiting for Lars once again. It was near the evening so less people were out. A hint of anxiety formed in the pit of her stomach. Holy shit, she couldn’t believe she was doing this. She was actually going to tell him that—

 

“Guess who~”

 

Lars pulled Sadie into a hug from behind, interrupting her thoughts. She nearly jumped when she heard his voice. She stayed calm and hugged him back. “Hey Lars.”

 

“Oh my god, I know we just saw each other a few days ago, but damn Sadie it feels so weird without you.” Lars looked around and saw a place to sit down. “You wanna sit?”

 

“Sure.”

 

Lars and Sadie talked for a while, occasionally making the other laugh while telling their stories. The sky was now tinted a light orange, and finally the laughter slowly died down. It had turned into peaceful silence between the two. They kept looking straight out at the ocean. Being in each other’s company was nice. No talking, no nothing. Just pleasantness. A couple minutes later, Lars spoke. “Hey, I just remembered, you said you needed to tell me something. What was it?”

 

Sadie felt her face grow hot and red. “O-oh yeah, that.”

 

“Well,” Lars spoke in a soft voice. “Do you wanna tell me?”

 

“I… I don’t know how to. It’s really hard to say.”

 

“Well, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. I’m not going to force you.”

 

“No, I need to tell you this. It’s really important, and not telling you would seem like a big mistake.”

 

“Sadie, I’m concerned. Is everything okay?”

 

“No, not really.” Sadie exhaled and took a moment to collect herself. “A few days ago, the doctors had called back, so we went over there to see what was up. And they… fuck.” Sadie started to choke on her words. “The more I thought about it the more it made sense.”

 

“Sadie— “

 

“I’m pregnant with our baby, Lars.” Sadie spoke as if it had come out by accident. Her hand clapped over her mouth as soon as those words left her mouth as her eyes started stinging and her throat started throbbing. She couldn’t even look at him, the whole thing seemed so embarrassing to admit, but now she had finally told him, and boy was it worse than she thought. Now came his reaction.

 

“Seriously?” Was all Lars could say. Lars didn’t even need an explanation. Everything added up from the night it could have possibly happened to Sadie suddenly coming down with all these ailments. It _was_ true. “Geez, Sadie…”

 

Sadie felt like running away. She didn’t even want to be here. She knew it could possibly come to this, but actually doing it was on a whole other level. She wanted to curl up and hide. At this point, she was starting to wonder if she had made the right choice in wanting to keep the baby.

 

“Look Sades, I don’t want to seem like a bad person right now, but this is a lot to take in. How long have you known?”

 

“Since yesterday.”

 

“And uh, do you know how far along you are?”

 

“Only three weeks.”

 

Lars took a breath. “Have you thought about what to do?”

 

“Yes, actually, I have. I don’t know what you’ll think, but just hear me out.” Sadie pulled her hair back out of her face and sighed. “I thought, what if we kept it? I know I already sound pretty dumb but just listen. I’ve thought about this to myself for almost a whole day and honestly, I’m just surprised we were even able to do it. But to tell you the truth, as crazy as this sounds… I want to keep it. I’m only saying this because I think it could be really nice to do this, and I feel like I’d regret it if we didn’t take this chance.” Her voice became lower. “If you don’t want to, then that’s fine. I’ll just have to get an abortion, because doing this alone would be impossible without you. We’d need each other more than ever and I just—“ Sadie stopped. “Look, it’s all up to you.”

 

Lars was silent. He didn’t know what to do next, all of this was such a surprise for him. He finally sat up, and Sadie stepped back. “Sadie, I really need some time to think about this. I’m sorry.”

 

Lars kissed her head and walked away, leaving Sadie alone. By this time, there was no one else around them, it was just her. Tears lightly fell onto her soft cheeks. It felt like her world just ended. It didn’t, though. So why was she so upset? She knew what was coming, she should have expected this. So why was his reaction such a shock to her? That’s when she figured it out. He had walked away.

 

So, what now?

 

* * *

 

 

The evening turned into night and the sky had now turned into a dark blue. Lars had finally arrived home. He turned his keys into the lock while thinking about how the mood of his night went downhill so quickly. He felt like an idiot for leaving Sadie by herself, but what he did was done. He walked into his house to find his parents having tea in the living room. Martha looked up and gave a warm smile at him. “Oh, Lars. Did you have a nice day?”

 

“It was fine, I guess.” Lars replied almost monotone. He lied, today was the craziest day he’s had so far.

 

“You were out all afternoon with Sadie, right?” Dante put down his cup of tea and grinned at him. “How is Sadie, Lars?”

 

“Uh, she’s fine too, dad.” Lars lied again. “Look, I’ll be in my room, ‘kay?” Lars rushed upstairs to his room in the attic.

 

Martha looked over at Dante, concerned. “Oh dear, do you think something happened?”

 

“I don’t know, darling. Well, he knows he can come to us anytime if there’s something wrong.”

 

 

Lars paced back and forth in his room, his head filled with mixed thoughts and feelings. Shit, how could he have let this happen? Now his relationship with Sadie was at stake, and even if it wasn’t, he felt like it would slowly fall apart if he didn’t make up his mind about what to do with it as fast as she did. This was all too crazy. It was too much to take in. He sat down on the end of his bed, thinking about what to do. He couldn’t. No matter how hard he tried, his brain couldn’t grasp the fact that he could possibly be… a father. Lars now looked up and found himself staring at his reflection of the wide mirror on his dresser. He was completely pink. He’d almost forgot he was most of the time. He felt normal, and he still needed sleep, heck, he’d still eat food sometimes just for the fun of it. It wasn’t half bad. The best part of it was that he got a second chance at life, which is something not everyone can get. He was super grateful for that chance, and since then all he’s been doing is taking chances. He took a chance with Sadie, and look where he is now. He’s finally with the person he’s admired for a long time, and he’s really happy about it. So, what if he took another chance?

 

Lars went downstairs to find his parents still sitting. They looked up at him. “Lars,” Martha spoke gently. “Is something wrong?”

 

“Ah geez,” Lars started. “I don’t know how to tell you guys this but you guys deserve to know.”

 

“Please Lars, what is this about?” Dante asked.

 

Lars took a breath. “Guys, listen, to put it plain and simple, I… got Sadie pregnant.”

 

Martha clapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh my, Lars.” Lars’ parents were usually calm and quiet, but despite their natural nature of being that way, he could tell that this time they were genuinely surprised.

 

“I can’t believe you let this happen, Lars! Why would you do this?” Dante sat up.

 

“I didn’t mean to, it just did!” Lars explained himself.

 

“Okay, everyone calm down.” Martha cut in. Everyone went silent until she spoke up again. “Now Lars, how does Sadie feel about all this?”

 

“T-that’s just it. She wants to keep it.”

 

“Oh. Well then, this changes things a little. So, how do _you_ feel about it then?” Dante asked.

 

“I had to leave her so I could think about everything. She told me this, and all I did was walk away. I really needed to be alone to think about it, but I feel terrible for leaving her.” Lars’ spoke.

 

“Oh Lars, you did what you needed to do. At least… you might have some idea about what you want to do?”

 

“Actually, I do.” Lars smiled. He told them everything he thought about.

 

“Are you sure this is what you want, Lars?” Martha asked him. “There’s no going back once it’s done.”

 

“Positive.” He assured them.

 

“Oh, Lars.” His parents hugged him. Lars felt relieved that he finally made a decision.

 

He thought to himself for a moment while still being hugged by his parents. “Actually, guys,” Lars started. “Can I ask a favour?”

 

“Anything, dear.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> get ready! steven and connie finally make an appearance with speaking roles next chapter!


	3. Will You?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lars comes back with some special words of his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this will be the last chapter I'll post until exams are over, but for now, i hope you enjoy this chapter! it's about as long as the last one, but it's my favourite so far! enjoy!

Sadie had been walking around the town since morning. It’s been two days. Two days. How much damn time did he need? He couldn’t wait around forever, leaving her without an answer, so he had to have thought at least a little about it, right? Then again, how would she know. He hasn’t called, sent her text, nothing. It’s as if he’s just disappeared without a trace, never to be seen again. Was he really inside all this time, or was he secretly outside avoiding her? It was hard to tell.

 

Sadie passed the Big Donut, the place where she had first met Lars. It felt so nostalgic passing there. Just in that one tiny building countless memories were made there. It was fine until working there every day started to become such a pain in the ass. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Sadie now looked up, she almost never took this route. It was odd seeing the town from this angle. She glanced over to her left and was delighted to see Steven and Connie. She hadn’t seen them in a little bit, and it would be nice to be in someone’s company right now. “Hey guys!” She called out.

 

They looked, and Steven smiled at her. “Oh my gosh! Sadie it’s been so long!” The two youngsters went up to her and hugged her. “How’ve you been?”

 

“I’ve been fine.” Sadie told them. Was she going to tell them about everything that had happened? No, they didn’t need to know just yet. “What are you two up to?”

 

“Just strolling.” Connie spoke holding onto her sunhat. “What are you doing?”

 

“I just thought I’d get some fresh air. These last few days have been really weird.”

 

“I feel ya,” Connie looked behind Sadie and raised an eyebrow. “Sadie, where’s Lars?”

 

“Oh yeah,” Steven spoke. “Where is he?”

 

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him in days.”

 

“Weird. Where do you think he’s gone?” Steven asked.

 

“I haven’t the slightest idea.”

 

“So, just you today?” Connie asked her.

 

“Well, I guess so.”

 

“That’s fine. Do you want to come with us?”

 

“Right now?” Sadie asked surprised. “Oh I don’t know, wouldn’t I be interrupting?”

 

“Of course not!” They said in unison.

 

“Really?”

 

“C’mon, Sadie, it’ll be nice! We haven’t seen each other in a while, so we might as well catch up now!”

 

Sadie smiled. “Well, if you insist.”

 

The three of them walked around town some more before stopping at a coffee shop near the end of the day. They sat outside catching up with each other. The afternoon turned into the evening and all three of them still sat there talking and laughing. Eventually, they got up to leave.

 

“This was great you guys, just what I needed.” Sadie smiled.

 

“Of course!” Connie spoke.

 

“We should do this again soon!” Steven said happily. “Maybe next time Lars can come.”

 

“Yeah, maybe.” Sadie looked down but smiled lightly.

 

“Bye Sadie!” Steven and Connie said as they headed off towards the temple.

 

Sadie felt relaxed. She needed to unwind from the previous events and just let go of her worries for a while, so this was just what she needed. She watched them head off together holding hands. They were a cute couple, indeed. She was happy for them. She looked out onto the shore. Sunset. Sadie started to make her way home when suddenly she heard a faint sound far out in the distance. She looked around and couldn’t see anything, but as she started walking again, the sound got more louder and could be heard more clearly. “Sadie!” Someone was calling her.

 

Sadie completely stopped to look around. Immediately, she caught a glance of someone running in her direction. The person came closer, and Sadie then knew that it was Lars. She turned around to face him and let him come. By the time he had reached her he was all out of breath and took a few seconds to collect himself. “Sadie,” he finally said. “do you know why me dying was one of the best things that’s ever happened to me?”

 

“W-what?” Sadie said taken aback. “You disappear for two days, no call or text, and you finally show up and _this_ is what you say to me?”

 

“Come on Sadie, just ask why!” Lars told her.

 

Sadie let out a big sigh. “Fine, why?”

 

“Because I got another chance at life. You’ve heard it all before, but listen. It’s true what they say, you know? When you’re about to die, life really does flash before your eyes. It’s sad really, because there’s so many things you might not have done when you died, whether it’s travelling to a new place or making new friends or telling someone you love them. Sadie, I don’t know if I ever told you this,” Lars found himself with tears in his eyes. “but when I died, everything I’ve ever done flashed before my eyes. I was so upset because I thought that I’d end up dying without ever seeing you again. Sadie, up there, I really thought I wouldn’t see you again, and I couldn’t be more grateful to be standing here today giving you all of my love. Sadie… you taught me to take chances in life. It’s because of you that we’re even together, and without you, my world would still be as sad as it was before. You inspire me to do so much and to _be_ so much, and you helped shape me into the person I am now. And taking chances, was the best thing I’ve ever done. I took a chance to give myself a happier life, and it worked. I took a chance with you, and look where we are now. We’re happy and in love Sadie, and there’s no way I’d ever want to give that up for anything in the universe.” Lars’ voice cracked, tears now fell down his face. “And yeah, life’s crazy for both of us right now, because this is something none of us expected to happen. I knew how you felt about it, but I just walked away from you, and I’m sorry. But I _have_ thought about it.” Lars wiped his face and smiled down at her. “You taught me to take chances in life, so, why not take a chance with this as well?”

 

Sadie was crying at this point. Tears came down as she wiped them, she couldn’t help but smile. “Lars, I—“

 

“Also, while we’re at it, I think now’s the perfect opportunity to ask you this.” Lars smiled pulled a small black box from his pocket and bent down on one knee. He opened the box, which revealed a ring with tiny diamonds that shone from the orange sunset. “Sadie, will you marry me?”

 

“Oh my god, Lars!” Sadie could barely speak, she was smiling too hard as tears still fell from her eyes. “You adorable nerd, yes!”

 

Sadie tackled him in a hug and the two of them kissed. “Man, I love you so much you don’t even know.” Lars whispered to her.

 

“Nah, I think I know firsthand exactly how you feel.” Sadie kissed him on the head.

 

“Guys!”

 

Lars and Sadie looked up from each other and saw Steven and Connie running toward them. “What were you guys just doing?!” Steven yelled excitedly.

 

“Wait!” Connie said. “Hugging, crying, laughter, a ring?!” Connie said shocked as she looked at the ring on Sadie. “Oh my gosh, are you two engaged?!”

 

“Heh, crazy right?” Lars added.

 

“Whaaat?!” Steven and Connie yelled jumping up and down. “I can’t believe it, this is so great! Congratulations you guys!” Steven told them.

 

“Lars!”

 

Lars looked ahead and saw Padparadscha running towards him holding up her dress as she ran.

 

“Padparadscha, don’t run off too far this time!” Rhodonite called after her, and Fluorite and Rutile followed behind. Padparadscha now arrived to where Lars was and caught her breath.

 

“I just had a wondrous vision!” She spoke delightfully as the other Off Colours arrived behind her.

 

“Okay, let’s hear it.” Rhodonite said.

 

“Lars and Sadie, are going to be engaged to each other!”

 

“Lars, what’s engaged?” One of the Rutile twins asked.

 

“Well, it’s basically when you ask someone to marry you, which is like asking someone to spend the rest of your life with. People do it on earth all the time.”

 

“So you’re going to do that with Sadie because you two love each other?” Rhodonite tried to wrap her head around it.

 

“That’s exactly it.” Lars told her.

 

Rhodonite’s face lit up. “Oh! I like this earth tradition!”

 

“That sounds like a lovely idea,” Fluorite smiled at them as she spoke in a slow voice. “Congratulations to both of you.”

 

The Off Colours embraced the couple in a big hug. “Ha, thanks you guys.”

 

“Hey Schtu-ball!” Greg pulled up with his van and got out. “Sheesh, it’s like there’s a party going on over here. Is something going on?”

 

“You _bet_ there’s something going on! Lars and Sadie are engaged!” Steven told him happily.

 

“Oh my gosh, well congratulations!” Greg told them.

 

“Hey Lars,” Steven started. “We were with Sadie all day, where were you?”

 

“Oh, yeah. That.” Lars quickly glanced over at Sadie who smiled faintly at him. Lars turned back. “The thing is, well what happened was Sadie told me a few days ago that she was pregnant, and—“

 

“Woah woah woah, hold the phone! Are you being serious right now?!”

 

“Serious as ever, Steven.” Lars told him smirking.

 

“And I thought this day wouldn’t come soon enough. I’m gonna be an uncle!” Steven spoke happily.

 

“This is just… wow. I have no words, I’m so excited for you two!” Connie told them.

 

“Wow, this is crazy! Give me a sec,” Greg went to his van and opened up the back doors rummaging through all the stuff he had stored in there. “It’s gotta be here somewhere… aha!” Greg stood in his van for a moment longer and came out holding something and approached Lars and Sadie. “Here’s an early wedding present! Look, I know how it can feel when you first find out. There’s so many emotions you’re feeling and you don’t even know where to begin! I wish you all the best and I hope this all works out well for you. So, as a member of been there done that, I present you with this.” He handed them a piece of paper. “Also, sorry about the writing, it’s kind of hard to write in a crowded van.” Greg chuckled.

 

Lars and Sadie read the small rectangular piece of paper. Their eyes widened in surprise. “Five million dollars?!”

 

“Well, I figured you guys’ll need a new place to stay for all this, plus, it all kinda happened out of nowhere, right?”

 

“I-I don’t even know what to say!” Lars stuttered.

 

“Thank you Mr. Universe!” Sadie told him.

 

“Aw, it’s no problem, really. I still have quite a bit of money left over anyways.”

 

“Oh, this is so exciting!” Steven came in. “I wonder if it’s a boy or a girl!”

 

“Don’t forget the wedding too, Steven!” Connie chimed in. “Oh, I can hardly wait!”

 

Lars put his arm around Sadie, and smiled. “Neither can we.”

 

 

Everything seemed different from this point onward. The air was filled with a sense of anticipation, and no one could seem to ignore it. Within a few days, Lars and Sadie had found a nice home, bought it, and moved all the stuff they wanted with them in their new home. It wasn’t too far from the boardwalk, which was nice. The home was slightly smaller than Lars’ home, it had four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room and one big kitchen. It was dark baby blue on the outside and had a dark grey roof on top. It took almost three days to get everything set up inside the house, but eventually it was done. It was now late in the evening. Lars and Sadie now plopped on the bed that they shared and sighed. It was a long past few days for both of them, but now the hard part of arranging the order of the house was finally completed. They fell back and were now lying down.

 

“Geez, these couple of days, huh?” Lars turned to her.

 

“Tell me about it.” Sadie spoke. “I still can’t believe that all of this is happening.”

 

“You and me both.” Lars told her. “I can’t wait for it all though.”

 

“Me too.” Sadie looked up at the ceiling. “These next few months are going to be crazy, huh?”

 

“Yeah. But we’re in this together, and I’m thankful for that.” Lars spoke softly.

 

Sadie turned to him and smiled at him. She cuddled up closer next to him as he came in close next to her as well. He wrapped his arms around her warm body as she did the same to him. They both let out a sigh before Lars spoke again. “I love you.”

 

“I love you too.”


	4. Talks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lars and Sadie talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys! sorry this took so long, i got caught up in other stuff like schoolwork and such. i'm happy to report that i passed all my exams! not really liking my new subjects for the semester, but after this, i won't ever have to take french ever again, that i'm happy about. anyways, i don't really like talking about school, i'm just relieved i'm finally posting this chapter! the writer's block was real with this one, but i enjoyed writing it a lot! i hope you guys like this chapter too! enjoy! :)

The sun shone through the window. It was a clear, winter day. It was mid-February, and the snow started to melt on the ground. Winter never stuck around in Beach City long, it always started late and ended early. A good thing too, almost no one was used to the cooler temperatures outside. It had been four months since Lars and Sadie were engaged to each other, and time seemed to be going by more quickly than the two expected. Sadie opened her eyes and squinted as she tried to get used to the light in the room. She lightly stretched and glanced up at the clock. It was only a little bit past eight in the morning. She tried to get out of bed, but found someone holding her back. She smiled to herself and turned around and kissed Lars on the bridge of his nose, causing him to chuckle. “Lars,” Sadie spoke almost at a whisper. “We do this every morning.”

 

“And you always make us wake up early every morning.” Lars spoke in a low voice. His morning voice was pretty hot. “Can’t we ever sleep in?”

 

“Well, our day has to start somewhere, right?”

 

“Sheesh Sadie, do married couples always get up this early?”

 

Sadie rolled her eyes. “Come on Lars, you’ll be fine once you get up.” Lars opened his eyes slowly. “Besides, the doctors might finally email us today. We might find out what gender our baby is.”

 

“Oh Sadie,” Lars turned to her. “I really really want to know. You really think today will be the day?”

 

“I do, actually. I have a feeling.”

 

Lars smiled at her. “God Sadie, if I could marry you right now, I would.”

 

“One more day until you can.” Sadie teased.

 

“Goddamnit.” Lars moved his hair out of his face.

 

“So, you gonna get up this time?” Sadie smirked.

 

“Maybe I will.”

 

“ ‘Kay, ‘cause I’m getting up, and I’m not going back to bed until it’s _actually_ nighttime.” Sadie hummed.

 

Lars huffed and finally rolled out of bed. He rubbed his eyes and started to move slowly. After about a couple of minutes he remembered what he was doing and eventually hurried downstairs, flung open Sadie’s laptop and searched through the sea of unread emails. Nothing. He groaned, and Sadie had finally come into the living room and sat herself next to Lars on the couch. “Anything yet?” She asked him.

 

“No,” Lars replied glumly.

 

“Thought so. The office doesn’t open until an hour.”

 

Lars’ eyes widened. “Well no wonder nothing’s happened!” He fell to his side, his head resting on Sadie’s thighs.

 

“It will.” She smiled and kissed his pink nose, causing him to giggle slightly.

 

“How is it that you’re so patient?” He asked as he looked up at her adoringly.

 

“It will happen soon, that’s probably why.”

 

Lars turned his different angle and smiled. “You look beautiful from down here, did you know that?”

 

“Well, I know now, don’t I?”

 

Lars sat up and checked his phone to see if he could have gotten the email. Nothing there either. “Would I get it if they emailed us?”

 

“Oh, no, it’d only go to my email.” Sadie told him.

 

“Why’s that?”

 

“Because I put it under my name, not both of ours. I’m a little more responsible, don’t you think?” Sadie grinned at him.

 

Lars chuckled. “Only by a little bit, Sades.”

 

Sadie closed her laptop. “Well, it’s only quarter to nine. We’ve got a lot of time to kill, so what do you wanna do?”

 

“How about—“ Lars started.

 

“ _Besides_ going back to bed?”

 

“Well, I’m out of ideas.” Lars stated and thought a little longer. Soon his face lit up. “I got something!”

 

Together, him and Sadie spent all morning making an ube roll, and finished a couple hours later, eating some of it. “So, what time is it now?” Lars checked his phone to find that the numbers read only 12:15pm. “It’s only been three hours? It felt like we took forever!”

 

“We still have half a day left to do stuff. What should we do now?” Sadie asked him.

 

“Wait. Do you think they could’ve emailed yet?” Lars questioned.

 

“Well, I don’t think they have just yet.”

 

“Can we at least check?”

 

Lars and Sadie went to check to see if they got any new emails. Still nothing. “Do you still think it’ll come today?” Lars asked.

 

“I do. So, you got any other ideas of what we could do?” Sadie spoke.

 

“Actually, I thought the roll would take all day, so I’m out of ideas. Do you have something in mind?”

 

“Horror movies, maybe?” Sadie told him. “I mean, only because most of the ones I own are long-ish, so time could end up going by quickly if we watch a few.”

 

“If it gets my mind off of the anticipation I’m feeling, then it sounds good to me.” Lars spoke and him and Sadie went upstairs to their room and chose three different movies to watch. It helped a lot, because neither of them noticed how much time had gone by since they first started watching. Almost hallway through the second film, Lars’ eyes felt heavy, and he could barely keep them open. He’d only close them for a few seconds. Just a few seconds, and that would be all.

 

 

He opened his eyes. The room was almost dark, and the day had turned into late evening. He found Sadie lying close against his body, sleeping in his arms. “Sadie.” He whispered to her softly.

 

“…Lars?” Sadie spoke still tired. “What time is it?”

 

Lars turned and read the bright neon letters of the digital clock. “It’s almost eight.” He then remembered about the email. “Sadie, I don’t want to rush you, but could we check if they sent the email?”

 

“Oh yeah, we should see if they did.”

 

The two of them crept downstairs, slowly turning the lights around them on, lighting up their home, and became more awake as they did so. They sat down on the couch together and went to check if there was anything. Five unread. Just some DIY ads, getaway ads, and…

 

“Lars.” Sadie spoke as he looked over and saw the email from the doctors’, waiting to be read.

 

“Oh geez, Sadie, what do we do?” Lars sounded excited but nervous.

 

“Let’s read it at the same time, just so we’ll find out together.”

 

“O-Okay. Yeah, sounds good.” Lars spoke.

 

“Okay.” Sadie said as she moved arrow over so that it now rested upon the unread email.

 

“Just so know, I’m cool with whatever. The baby I mean.” Lars said.

 

“Oh yeah, definitely.” Sadie agreed. “You ready?”

 

“Yeah, I’m ready.” Lars breathed out.

 

“Okay. Three, two, one…” Sadie opened it and her and Lars proceeded to read the rather short email. So far, nothing. Then suddenly…

 

“Lars…” Sadie softly spoke, trying to take it in. “It’s—“

 

“A girl.”

 

Sadie turned to Lars to find he had tears that rested on his eyes. He blinked them away and they fell onto his rosy cheeks. The fact that him and Sadie were soon to be parents had hit him hard in that moment. He couldn’t help but smile. Neither could she. It was contagious; pure joy had filled the air and it was amazing. He embraced her, and couldn’t stop smiling. “Sadie!” Lars said as tears came down his face. “We-we’re gonna be parents!”

 

“I know!” Sadie hugged him back, also feeling a sudden burst of joy.

 

“Oh my god, I love you so much!” Lars continued to hold her in his arms, never wanting to let go.

 

“Oh geez, I love you too Lars!”

 

“Wow, now I can’t wait for tomorrow!” Lars spoke happily. “The best day ever is right around the corner, Sades.”

 

“I nearly forgot! Everything good is happening at once, I can’t even remember what’s going to come next!”

 

“Well, I’d say tomorrow is a day neither of us will forget.”

 

“Oh yeah, for sure.” Sadie closed her laptop.

 

“So, what now?” Lars asked.

 

“We sleep? We’ve got a big day tomorrow, we have to leave early to get ready.” Sadie told him.

 

“Whaaat? After literally the most shocking news I’ve ever heard, I’m just supposed to go to sleep?”

 

“Well, yes.” Sadie smiled. “Besides, you’ll be with me, and that’s a good thing, isn’t it?”

 

“Honestly,” Lars stood up. “that’s the _best_ thing.”

 

After what had seemed to be an exciting night, it was now over. Now, Lars and Sadie had to wake up early for tomorrow for their wedding day. Everything was great, and the two were in great love. At long last, the night, their night had finally ended, or so they thought.

 

* * *

  

Lars stirred. He opened his eyes and squinted. It was dark. He didn’t know what time it was, and he didn’t want to find out. He only wanted to fall back asleep. He closed his eyes.

 

No. It wasn’t working. His body wouldn’t let him fall back asleep. It was a little annoying how he had to wake up, most nights he liked to just sleep through the whole night, especially if there would be something important the next day, like an event like a wedding. A wedding. His own wedding. Huh. He still couldn’t believe that it was actually happening, for such things only felt like they could only happen in his head. He then realized he was shivering from the cool air of the house. He went to turn to Sadie so he could cuddle her from behind. He closed his eyes and felt around for her, hoping that her soft fair skin would grace against his fingers so he could wrap his longing arms around her warm body. He couldn’t feel her at all. He opened his eyes once again and to his surprise she wasn’t there at all. This caused him to become more awake and now he fully sat up, finally noticing that a small light had come through the cracks of the bathroom door. He quietly but quickly got up and made his way around the room using the small rays of light. He approached the door and slowly opened it, finally finding Sadie on the ground bent over the toilet. She turned, and by the looks of it, was surprised to find him there as well. “Sadie are you okay?” Lars asked slightly concerned.

 

“Oh it’s no big deal, this is normal, right?” She rubbed her tired eyes.

 

“I-um, I guess so?” Lars looked down.

 

“I can’t believe you only found me now though.” Sadie commented.

 

Lars looked back up. “ _Now_? What do you mean ‘only now’?”

 

“Oh…”

 

“Sadie, c’mon, please tell me.”

 

“I don’t know it’s just… it’s been like this for a little more than a week, okay?” Sadie told him.

 

Lars was shocked. “It’s been like this every night for this long? Why didn’t you come tell me?” He opened the bathroom cupboard and reached for a cloth, then putting it under some cool water.

 

“I-I don’t know…”

 

He continued to put the cloth under the water while Sadie threw up one more time. He squeezed the dripping water from the cloth and made his way back to Sadie and sat cross legged, handing her the cloth. “Here.” Awkward silence ensued between the two, and it was dead quiet in the room. A couple of moments later, Lars glanced over at her, and wrapped his arms around her body holding her close, letting out a sigh. “I’m sorry.” Lars finally spoke. “I could never get upset with you, you know that. It’s just, I guess I just can’t help but worry about you now. I just want you to be okay while we’re going through all of this, y’know?”

 

“I’m scared, Lars.”

 

“Wh-what?” He was caught off guard by her response.

 

“I’m scared, Lars. I just can’t help but think about the future. What if we don’t raise our child well? What if we end up as bad parents?”

 

Lars smiled lightly. “Well it’s good to know I’m not the only one feeling this way.”

 

“You too?” Sadie asked sounding almost surprised.

 

Lars turned and sat down beside her. “Listen, Sades. As far as I know, no parent is perfect, at least that’s what my mom told me. But, I guess, in the end, we can only do our best with this. If we do that, well then we shouldn’t need to be worrying. Besides, I’ve got you, and you’ve got me. So maybe, we could just do our best together?”

 

Sadie looked up at him and hugged him, burying her face into his chest. “Of course. Thanks Lars, I feel a lot better about all of this.”

 

“Honestly I do too.” Lars then remembered how early in the morning it was, and remembered what day it was. He smirked and kissed her cheek. “In a couple of hours we’ll finally be married~”

 

“Finally! I thought this day would never come.”

 

“Me either.” Lars looked back into the bedroom and turned back to Sadie. “Can we please go back to bed now?”

 

“Oh yeah, definitely.” They finally made their way back to their bedroom and crawled into bed. “Today’s gonna be super tiring, I can feel it.”

 

“Yeah honestly, it probably will be. Still, I think it’s going to be the best day of our lives.” He pulled her close and cuddled her. “I love you so much.”

 

“I love you too.”

 

They soon fell asleep in each other’s arms, waiting to find out what surprises and memories the day would bring.


	5. Overwhelming Happiness?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *inhales* ze wedding and ze fluff

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaAHH i'm so lame i haven't updated since february ughkskjsdlksks i'm super sorry about the wait. i planned to post on march break but i had to study for a test i had the next week. anyways, i hope you enjoy this chapter! (the ending scene is my favourite)

Lars woke up in the morning to find that Sadie had already left with her mom and Connie to get ready for the wedding. Lars quickly got dressed and went over to the temple where Steven was waiting for him. The gems were out somewhere in town, so it was just Steven, Lars, and Lion.

 

“So, Connie went with Sadie, huh?” Lars asked.

 

“Yup.” Steven searched for his tuxedo.

 

“And the gems are?”

 

“I have no clue, somewhere in town I bet. It’s honestly kinda weird, I’ve grown up with them seeing them as fierce warriors. Not like I don’t see them as that anymore, but it’s just been odd not seeing them go on missions as often as they used to. But I guess that’s kinda good, they’ve gotten closer, and now they all act like best friends. That’s nice though, I’m happy they have time for themselves now.” Steven spoke. He left the bathroom to continue to look for his tuxedo, finally finding it in the back of his closet. “Finally! It’s been forever since I’ve seen how it looks on me. You almost done Lars?”

 

“Yeah, almost, just grooming my pink dimensional hair.”

 

Steven chuckled. “I’ll be in the other room.” He went to go change in his room and put on his fancy black suit. He then turned around to head back to the bathroom to wash his face and saw Lion licking upwards on his leg. “Lion, there you are! Let me help you get ready.” He nudged Lion to the side, but he wouldn’t budge, only giving out grunts of disapproval. “Come on, you’re just putting on a bow tie! No fancy suit or anything! I promise.” Lion finally sat down and waited for Steven to put on the one small accessory around his neck. Steven held the item and quickly put it on the pink furry lion before he decided that what Steven was doing was a bad idea. Steven stepped back and looked at Lion, eyes filled with joy. “Lion, you handsome feline you! Just a sec, I wanna brush back your mane a little bit.” Steven headed back to the bathroom and found the comb on the sink. He glanced and saw Lars in the mirror. “Wow Lars, you look so good!”

 

“Says you!” Lars grinned at him. “I’ve never seen you so gussied up before! Oh my god, Connie’s gonna be all over you when she gets a look at my favourite best man!” Lars smacked his back.

 

“If we weren’t in such fancy suits at the moment, consider yourself tackled.” Steven smiled back at him. He turned, taking in how Lars looked another time. “You look really good, but what if we could add just one more thing?”

 

“Like what?”

 

“Just a sec.” Steven went off to the kitchen and pulled out a pink coloured flower out of the many other coloured ones he kept in a vase. He put the flower in Lars’ suit, right over his heart. “Aw, it looks cute! Do you like it?” Steven lightly smiled up at him.

 

Lars couldn’t help but smile back. “I love it.”

 

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. “I’ll get it, it’s probably Connie waiting for me.” Steven grinned and pushed his hair back and started walking to the front of the house. He opened the door. “Heyyy Connie—” It wasn’t Connie however, it was all the gems in fancy dresses and tuxedos. “Oh my gosh, guys! You look amazing, all of you!”

 

“Oh, thank you Steven!” Pearl spoke happily. She wore a short light blue dress with a blue ribbon down the back. Amethyst’s hair was tied back into a ponytail, and wore a long purple dress with a slit that went up one leg. Lapis had a long blue sparkly dress, and Peridot and Garnet both wore tuxedos.

 

“And Amethyst, _you’re_ wearing a dress?” Steven asked.

 

“Yeah, yeah, I know. But… Pearl convinced me to and honestly, it really isn’t that bad.”

 

“I let you wear your hair in a ponytail, and you wore the dress for me. Fair deal if you ask me.” Pearl put a hand on top of Amethyst’s purple mane.

 

“Well I don’t know how you can even _stand_ to walk around in such… _froofy things._ ” Peridot spoke. “It feels so… uncomfortable.”

 

“Well, you guys look great anyway.” Steven peered behind them. “Hey, do you know where Connie is?”

 

“Oh yeah, she’s gonna meet you guys there.” Lapis finally spoke up.

 

“I guess we should get going then.”

 

Everyone made their way to the shore, where the ceremony would be held. Everyone found seats while Steven went up at the front with Lars, looking at the people in the crowd. There weren’t too many people, which seemed nice. The Off Colours stayed near the gems, and looking farther down, he saw Lars’ parents and Sadie’s mom conversing. He looked around for Connie, but she was still nowhere to be seen. Steven wondered where she was before his thoughts were interrupted. Connie came up from behind him and wrapped her arms around his body, smooching his cheek. “Finally we made it!”

 

“Connie! Thank goodness you’re here.”

 

“Yeah, we took longer than expected, but we wanted Sadie to look perfect!” Connie explained. She then turned to Lars. “Oh my gosh, wait till you see her Lars, she honestly looks super amazing.”

 

“I don’t doubt it.” Lars smiled.

 

“Oh Connie, here.” Steven blushed and handed her a pretty yellow flower and put it in her hair. “It matches your dress.”

 

“Oh Steven thank you, I love it!”

 

Out of nowhere, Lion appeared behind Connie, holding a small pillow in his mouth which held the rings. “Lion!” Steven told him. “Be careful with those!” Lion grunted and sat down behind them. “Please please _please_ don’t mess this up, we’ve been working on this for months!” Lion only had one part to play, and that was to present the rings when asked to. “We almost never give you orders, but today it’s really important that you obey the one order we ask of you. Please?” Lion didn’t do anything, he just stared at Steven with wide eyes.

 

The big cat’s gaze suddenly shifted to his left and Steven turned as well to see that everyone in the crowd was now looking down the aisle to see Sadie at the end of it, wearing a cute, simple wedding dress with a bit of floral design. He couldn’t help but grin. Steven turned to Lars to find his gaze transfixed on the sight before him. It was breathtaking. _She_ was breathtaking. Then there was that awesome feeling again. That feeling settled right in his gut, almost the same kind of feeling that you felt when you’re nervous, but it was really different. His heart leaped in his chest. He had never been more in love with her before. It was all right. Everything happening around him in the moment felt so right. Choosing to be with her felt right, choosing to take on the upcoming responsibilities of being a father felt right, and choosing to marry Sadie felt right. It seemed almost impossible to describe how he was feeling about all of this in just one sentence. Overwhelming happiness? Yeah, that sounded just right.

 

Sadie walked up the aisle and joined Lars at the altar. The wedding commenced, and within a few minutes there wasn’t a dry eye in the crowd. Steven felt joy and happiness inside him finally seeing what he had always wanted to happen, finally happen. They were in great love and after all this time they were finally getting married. It was really cool, actually. The first day Steven met them they were just two employees running the nearby donut shop. They’ve had many experiences together over the years and look where they all were now. Things really were changing, and for them, it was for the better.

 

A few hours later, Lars and Sadie were officially married, and now there was a small party after the ceremony where everyone was chatting happily. Steven and Connie were with Lion and the gems were behind them talking. Lars came up to Steven. Steven turned and gave him the tightest hug. “Lars! This is so cool, congratulations!”

 

“Haha, thanks Steven.” He glanced at him and Connie. “So uh, you gonna be next soon or?” Lars smirked.

 

Steven’s face turned pink while Connie snickered. Steven smiled and nudged his shoulder. “Oh hardy har, Lars.”

 

“Oh Lars, here you are.”

 

Lars turned to see that it was Sadie, still in her adorable little dress.  Lars’ heart felt like it was going to burst any second. He couldn’t help but giggle. He bent down slightly and grasped her hands, smiling. “There’s so much I wanna say to you.”

 

“Well, go ahead.” She grinned up at him.

 

Lars nodded. “I will.” Lars breathed in and exhaled. He found a nearby microphone and went up in front of all the people in the crowds. They all saw him and the talking slowly died down as the people turned to him. Lars was shaking, but he really wanted to do this. He exhaled once more. “Wow, uh first I’d just like to thank everyone for coming. Today has been amazing, and it’s not even over yet! I’m looking forward to the rest of it. Actually, the reason I’m up here is because I have a few things to say to my new wife.” He looked at Sadie and smiled softly. “Wow, I’m super happy to finally be able to call you that. These last few months have been… a lot, but honestly I can hardly wait for everything that is to come. You make me feel so happy. You’re kind, talented, and you’re literally the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen. I love you so much Sadie. I can’t wait to spend my life with you, and our little girl.”

 

Bombshell dropped. About half the people in the crowd had surprised looks on their faces, it was almost amusing to watch. Others clapped at the speech, including Steven. Lars got off from the centre of the crowd and made his way back to his friends; he did it in a way that didn’t make it seem he was a nervous wreck, which he was. “Lars! That was so cute!” Steven told him. Lars found a chair and sat down, staring off into the distance. Despite his pink skin, Steven noticed that he looked a little pale. “Uh, Lars?”

 

“I can’t believe I just did that.” He spoke in a low voice.

 

“Well, you didn’t _have_ to.” Sadie came up beside him. “You could’ve just told me.” She chuckled.

 

Lars gulped and weakly smiled up at her. “I wanted to though.”

 

“Well, I appreciate it anyway.” Sadie kissed his cheek. As if her lips were medicine, Lars’ anxiety quickly went away. “So, what time is it?”

 

Steven checked his watch. “15 past 8.”

 

“We’ve still got a couple hours left.” Lars told them and smiled. “Might as well make the most of it while we still can.”

 

Lots of memories were made that night by everyone, and they all had lots of fun. The party continued all night long it seemed, but a little bit before midnight, it had ended. Everyone went back home, including Lars and Sadie. You would’ve thought they would’ve taken a honeymoon to someplace relaxing and sunny, but they already had lots of things to think about and prepare for that they couldn’t afford the time off. Besides, they had each other, and that’s all that they had really needed.

 

It was late at night. Lars and Sadie just walked in and were now upstairs in their bedroom. Lars flung himself onto the bed. “Ugh, I’m so tired I could die. Again.” He rolled onto his back and groaned. “Sadie, are you almost done?” Lars complained. “I know I said I’m tired, but I don’t really wanna fall asleep until you’re here.”

 

“Yeah, I’m almost done! You don’t know how hard it is to get soft hair again after it’s sprayed with lots of hairspray.”

 

Lars smiled to himself and laid down, holding a pillow close to him. He closed his eyes and exhaled. “I’m so freaking in love with you it’s insane.”

 

“And I’m super in love with you too.” Sadie came from behind and hugged him.

 

“Ha, finally!” Lars beamed and hugged her back.

 

“C’mon Lars, let’s go to sleep now, you’re not the only one that feels like they’re gonna die from lack of sleep.” Sadie softly spoke as her and Lars got under the covers and started to fall asleep.

 

However one thought kept Lars awake. “Hey, Sadie?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Have you noticed how… quickly all of this is going?”

 

“Of course I have.” Sadie turned to face him. “Why?”

 

“I don’t know. It just feels like it was only yesterday when I proposed to you, and now we’re already married.”

 

“Time doesn’t slow down nowadays it seems.” Sadie remarked. “To be honest, I’m surprised at how fast all this is going too.”

 

Lars turned onto his side and looked at her with some sense of longing in his eyes. “You think so?”

 

Sadie nodded and lightly smiled. “Only five more months left.”

 

A feeling of pride and joy erupted inside him. “My god…” He couldn’t help but grin as he leaned in and kissed her. “I can’t even begin to describe how excited I am to meet her, Sades.” He gazed into her eyes adoringly.

 

“That’s the second most adorable thing you’ve said all day.” Sadie told him, still moved by what he said.

 

“Heh, well I _am_ known to be pretty adorable.” Lars jokingly spoke.

 

“By who?” Sadie smirked and went along with it.

 

“By my many fans, of course.” He ran his fingers through his soft pink hair.

 

“Let’s not forget who’s been your number one fan since we first met.” Sadie climbed on top of him and sat on his pelvis.

 

“How could I?” Lars pulled her closer as she bent down, their faces inches apart from each other, and their fingers laced together. “You’re the most unforgettable person I’ve ever known.” Their lips pressed together in a way that was intense yet blissful. They melted into the contact, they hadn’t kissed that way in a long time.

 

Soon they separated. “Hah… holy shit, that felt so good to do that again.” Sadie gave a small peck to his collarbone.

 

“God, I want to fuck you hard.” Lars groaned.

 

“And the offer sounds _super_ tempting, but you know what the answer is.”

 

“Ugh I know, but I’m really happy for us anyways.” Lars looked up at her with love in his eyes.

 

“I know you are.” Sadie gave one last kiss to his forehead.

 

“Uh Sades, do you think you could get off me before my dick gets hard?” Lars asked her.

 

She couldn’t help but laugh. “Alright, alright.” She got off him and got herself well under the bed covers. “You’re honestly such a nerd,” She remarked. “but I love you anyways.”

 

“Yeah, I know you do.” He smirked at himself and soon wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to his chest. “Sorry but I can’t sleep unless you right here in my arms.” He smiled as he closed his eyes.

 

“See, this is exactly what I was talking about—“

 

“Shh, I’m sleeping now.” He smiled to himself, eyes not opening.

 

“Ha, whatever. ‘Night Lars, I love you.”

 

He didn’t say anything at first. Soon, he opened one eye.

 

“… I love you too.”

 

What could he do? He just couldn’t resist.


	6. Good Impressions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lars finally meets her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i didn't expect to be putting out the next chapter so early, but i was super excited to write this one! :) hope you enjoy!

The next few months had come and went, and they went by so quickly nobody could really remember what had briefly happened. As she got further along into her pregnancy, Sadie began to isolate herself, and with Lars not really wanting to leave her, he’d begun to isolate himself as well. They kept quiet for a very long time; since the wedding, nobody had really seen them, and if they did, it wasn’t for long. Steven and Connie were the only ones who saw them more often than anybody else, and they usually went to go up and check up on them. During those quiet months, Steven and Connie became young adults in their 20’s, so their slight age difference hadn’t really affected the relationship anymore from then on out.

 

All of them had planned to catch up at Lars’ place. Steven and Connie had met up at the temple and had proceeded to head off to Lars’ house. For the most part, they had walked in comfortable silence. They eventually started to talk, and then halfway travelling to their destination, Steven’s cell phone rang. He pulled it out and saw that it was Lars calling him. He stopped walking and accepted the call, putting the call on speaker phone as Connie had turned around. “Hey Lars, what’s up?” Steven had asked.

 

“Hah, you guys wouldn’t happen to still be coming, right?” said Lars.

 

“Uh, we _were_ going to… but…”

 

“Lars is there something going on?” Connie cut in as they both stared down at the phone.

 

“You _bet_ there’s something going on. Sadie’s in labor.”

 

Steven and Connie glanced at each other and exchanged surprised looks. “W-What?”

 

“Yeah, I wasn’t ready for that either, but listen. Just don’t come over, and everything’s fine.” Lars told them with a hint of nervousness in his voice. “But we’ll probably be gone for the rest of the day, so I guess I’ll call again once things are less—“

 

“Yeah yeah, we get the picture, but you should really go now!” Connie told him.

 

“Good luck!” Steven said as Connie took the phone and hung up.

 

She finally let out a sigh. “Geez, I’m not even a parent, yet it’s like I could feel exactly what Lars was feeling.”

 

“Like what?” Steven said. “Stress? Fear?”

 

“I don’t know, something like that.”

 

“Well… now that our whole day’s cleared up, what do you think we should do?” he asked.

 

For the rest of the day, they spent chilling out in the temple, doing small but lengthy activities they enjoyed doing as young kids like puzzles and word games and watching movies. Every once in a while, Steven would check his phone to see if he had missed a call, or had gotten a text from Lars. Nothing at all. After what had seemed like an eternity, Connie had finally cooked up some noodles and they ate together around the small table. They ate in silence; it felt like they hadn’t eaten anything in so long. Throughout the day, the whole thing with Lars and Sadie was in the back of their mind. It wouldn’t really go away, and it was safe to say it was a shock for both of them. “Anything from Lars yet?” Connie looked up from her bowl.

 

“Nope, still nothing.”

 

“Man… it’s been a while. At about what time did Lars call in the morning?”

 

“Uh, I don’t know. I think it was almost eight.”

 

“Hm, and it’s almost nine right now. That’s like, almost 14 hours.”

 

“Wow, and now I’m pretty sure he would’ve called before if everything was okay.” Steven told her.

 

“Yeah, I just hope everything _is_ okay.”

 

“Oh, it probably is. I mean we don’t know how fast or slow this stuff goes by, but I think you get what I mean?” Steven said.

 

“I guess so.”

 

About an hour had passed and Steven was all ready for bed. He had a self-made bed with some blankets on the ground and Connie had her phone in her hand, reading a text from her mom. She then sat down next to him. “I was supposed to visit at my mom’s place for a couple minutes to drop off some stuff, but she said it’s okay that I bring it tomorrow.”

 

“That’s good. Do you want some extra clothes or something to sleep in?” Steven offered.

 

“Nah, I’ll manage.” Connie plopped herself down and laid back next to him. “Besides, you’re here with me, so I won’t be _totally_ uncomfortable while I sleep.”

 

“Ha.” He slinked his arm around her shoulders pulling her closer. “Glad I could help.”

 

Another hour had passed. They had tried sleeping, but the thoughts of both of them kept them awake. It was now a little past eleven. Steven turned on his back and stared up at the wooded ceiling. “Connie?” He called her to quietly to see if she was awake.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“So, you _are_ still awake.”

 

“Yeah, I can’t really sleep.” She admitted, turning to him. “My thoughts are keeping me awake.”

 

“Good thoughts?”

 

“And feelings. You know when you’re feeling a certain way but you don’t know what it is? It’s just like, this feeling in my gut is keeping me up, I guess.”

 

“Me too.”

 

“Is it just because you haven’t heard from Lars all day?” She grinned at him using her elbow to sit up, resting her chin in the palm of her hand.

 

“Ugh, _no_!” Steven tried to hide his smile.

 

“Heh, are you sure?”

 

“Connie very soon I’ll be the uncle of one of my best friends’ daughter. You expect me to actually get some decent _sleep_?” Steven asked.

 

“Who knows,” Connie began to lead him on. “maybe you already are one.”

 

Steven blinked in disbelief for a moment. “Am I?”

 

“Oh, come _on_ Steven!” Connie pulled on his arm slightly and closer to her. “Lars will call eventually but in time, you should really at least get a little bit of sleep.”

 

“Ha, I guess you’re right.”

 

“Of _course_ I am.” She boasted. “Besides, if you don’t sleep well I probably won’t either. So, let’s just close our eyes and see if we actually _can_ fall asleep.”

 

“Fine, fine.” Steven rested his head on her chest as she wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “I’ll just try though… no promises…”

 

He closed his eyes, and not even five minutes had passed before a familiar ringtone started to play in the silence of the room. He let it play a little longer before finally realizing what it was. His eyes opened and sat up almost instantly, reaching over Connie without trying to startle her, failing while doing so. “Steven…! Hold on for a second—“

 

Wasting almost no time, Steven checked to see who was calling, and low and behold it was Lars. He frantically swiped right, answering the call and putting the phone up to his ear. “Hello, Lars? Is everything okay? How did it go—“

 

“Ugh, not too many questions, Steven.” Lars’ voice rang through the phone, and Steven felt like he hadn’t heard his voice in ages. “My freaking head is killing me.”

 

“Oops, sorry.” Steven spoke. “So… how _did_ everything—“

 

“Fine, Steven. Everything went fine.”

 

“And… is it really a girl?”

 

“No Steven, we had another gem. Of _course_ it’s a girl!” Lars said sarcastically.

 

“Alright, just checking.” Steven almost laughed. “One last thing… do you know what she looks like?”

 

“I wish I did.” Lars’ voice dropped. “They took her away before I could get a good look at her.”

 

Steven was genuinely surprised. “What? Why?”

 

“Well, I guess it’s because she didn’t cry much at first. To them I guess it means something doesn’t seem right. She also _was_ born earlier than expected, so they might’ve just wanted to check on things.”

 

“Geez Lars, are you _sure_ everything’s fine?” Steven asked.

 

“Positive.” Lars replied instantly. “I have a good feeling.”

 

“I’m sure you do.” Steven yawned. “So… I guess we’ll call soon then.”

 

“Yeah, I guess so.”

 

“See you around. Good luck with everything.”

 

“Thanks.”

 

Steven hung up the phone, and laid back down next to Connie, hugging her close.

 

“So? What happened?” Connie asked.

 

Steven closed his eyes and smiled. “I’m an uncle.”

 

* * *

 

 

Lars leaned back in his chair. The room was now dimly lit, and only one light by the door was on. Today felt like hell, but honestly, he’d go back in time just to do it all over again. He glanced back behind him and saw Sadie asleep. He smiled, and turned back to look at the clock. It wasn’t even past midnight, yet he felt like he could just fall asleep right then and there, but his mind told him not to. He _had_ to see her, no matter what. He wondered what she would look like. More like him, or more like Sadie? And what about her personality, what would that be like? The possibilities felt endless. The more he thought, the more time seemed to move, and as time did that, the more he grew a sense of longing for his daughter. It was a familiar sense of longing, however, like, on occasion, he’d feel the same when it came to Sadie. But of course it seemed familiar, it was their child he wanted to see after all. He still couldn’t believe that they had made it this far, no matter how many times he tried to wrap his head around it.

 

Then he started to wonder what was taking so long. Babies being born early _had_ to be common, right? So what was the big fuss was about once it came to his own? What could they possibly be looking for? He glanced back up at the clock, which now read 1:03AM. It had been a little bit past two hours since he only got a first glimpse of her. He now started to get a sickening feeling. What if something really _was_ wrong for months and neither him or Sadie had known about it? Damn it, he wouldn’t be sitting here thinking about such things if they would just hurry the hell up. Finally, after what had seemed like an eternity…

 

“Mr. Barriga?”

 

Lars quickly looked up, shaking his head of his complex thoughts. “Y-Yeah?”

 

A slim lady stood before him in white long uniform, holding something in her arms wrapped in a light pink blanket. Lars knew what it was, and his heart nearly exploded with anticipation. “I believe this one’s yours.”

 

She handed him the bundle and Lars wrapped his arms around it with no hesitation, finally satisfying that longing feeling. He looked down contently, and finally found her face. It was small and round, it wouldn’t even fit in the palm of his hands. Her skin looked especially soft, and her face looked pudgy. Her eyes were closed, and Lars also took note of the long lashes she had. It almost seemed too good to be true. “I-Is she…”

 

“Oh yes, everything’s fine.” The lady finished. “She didn’t cry a lot, so we thought there might be something up with that, but, it turns out we were wrong. She’s in perfect condition you know.” She saw Lars staring down at the small bundle in his arms and smiled. “I’ll leave you two alone for now.”

 

“Thank you.”

  

The lady finally walked off and left the room, leaving Lars alone to spend his first moments with his new child. He looked back down at her and couldn’t help but grin. This is everything he could ever want and more. “You’re so adorable…” He finally managed to get the right words out of his mouth. He glanced around, hoping no one was watching him. He felt silly for wanting to do this, but…

 

“Heh, hi there. You probably won’t remember this at all when you get older, but honestly, I’ll remember this forever.” He started talking to the infant. Her eyes were closed, and she couldn’t hear him either since she was fast asleep. Nobody else around him was awake, so he felt like she brought him a little bit of company, which was something he really needed in that moment.

 

“Anyways, like it or not, I’m gonna be your dad, even far after I die. Well, you don’t need to know about all this magical destiny stuff just yet, but like I said, here I am.” He began quietly talking to her again. “Also, before you ask, _yes,_ you do have a mom, but you’ll probably meet her later on. I’d show you what she looks like but you’re asleep right now. Anyways, she’s pretty amazing and quite possibly one of the coolest people I’ve ever met. Not to mention she’s also very beautiful. I bet soon you’ll come to love her just as much as I do. I think you’re going to really like her.”

 

He paused for a moment. He thought about Steven, Connie, and all the Crystal Gems and the Off Colours who were back by the shore. “But… here’s the thing.” He started again. “What’s all about to happen in your life, isn’t something that I’d call ordinary, in fact, I’d say it’s the exact opposite of that. You see, you don’t know it yet, but there’s already lots of people looking forward to finally meeting you. Even before you were born you were already loved greatly by everyone you’ll soon encounter, and by your mother and me. I think you’re going to like everyone, they’re all really great people.” He paused again. “I can’t wait to see what you’re going to do.”

 

He finally finished, and started to examine her facial features again. He finally took it in that she looked a lot like Sadie, and he was kind of blown away by that. His gaze met with her eyes, and he had finally noticed that hers were already opened, or at least they tried to be. Tears fell from them and slowly ran down her soft cheeks, but she didn’t make a sound. She scrunched her tiny nose and blinked the tears out of her eyes so she could kind of see again. Watching her attempt this was beyond adorable; Lars felt like crying happily. “H-Hey, if you start crying, I’ll start crying. We’ll both be a mess.” He let out a small laugh, pulling himself together. He could’ve sworn right in that moment that things couldn’t get any better than they already were, but he’d be dead wrong.

 

He continued to take in the sight of his child, when he could’ve swore he saw something that didn’t seem all that natural. It was near her head. He leaned in closer and saw bits of light pink come from it. He held his breath, and pulled back the blanket that covered most of her head, revealing small tufts of light pink hair already visibly growing in the spot. He was in complete disbelief. He didn’t even know what to think. It just seemed so incredibly unbelievable. Lars was touched. He wanted to hug her gently and just stay here with her for as long as he could. Almost instantly, he felt some sort of new connection with her. He couldn’t help but weep just a little. “Guess you couldn’t help but take after me, huh?” He laughed once more. At this point, Lars couldn’t take his eyes off his daughter. She was pink, and perfect. She reminded him of Rose Quartz’s moss from all those years ago. Once the moss bloomed, it was the prettiest colour of pink you’d seen. Now for him, the moss had indeed bloomed, and he was beyond overjoyed. “You’re just like a light pink lotus flower.”

 

He paused for a moment, reflecting briefly upon what he just said. _“A light pink lotus flower.”_ He glanced back down at his daughter, who was now sleeping with a light smile etched on her face. “Lotus...?” The word quietly escaped his mouth. His hand came down and lightly touched the side of her face with the back of his finger. She smiled, which caused him to lightly smile back at her. He then took a breath, finally feeling relaxed. “If it’s alright with your mom… I think I’m gonna call you Lotus.”

 

At last, he felt happy.


	7. Strange

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lars questions his immortality, and Lotus has a strange dream that feels so real that it isn't even a dream anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the wait! this chapter will be super good, i promise! it's the longest chapter since chapter one, so sit back and relax, because this story is actually going to have a plot now! woo! hope you enjoy, and please leave comments, kudos or feedback! :)

The bright sun shone through her room, lighting it up and provoking her to finally notice it. She didn’t want to, but she peeked open her eyes just a little. The first thing she saw were her bedsheets, and took note on how pink they were. Geez, she really had this weird thing with all things pink. Through half open eyes, she slowly moved her gaze upwards, examining her bedroom walls, which were also painted in a light pink colour. She rubbed her eyes and let out a sigh, finally stretching her small arms. As she did this, one of her stuffed animals had fallen onto her head. It was a small white polar bear, which she loved dearly. She grabbed it and pulled it close to her skinny chest, burying her face in its white fur, gently smelling it. She finally heard the birds chirping outside her bedroom window. She turned to hear them better, when her pink hair slowly fell and covered her eyes as she did this. She pushed it out of her sight, but felt happy. Summer was here, and she really liked this time of season. Not just because of her birthday, but— then that’s when she remembered. Today was her birthday. Her ninth birthday to be exact.

 

Lotus doesn’t remember most of her years as a young child. She felt as if her parents were too… affectionate around her, even though she just knew that they really cared about her. She met Steven, Connie, and the gems almost immediately after she was born, so they had always been like family to her. As she got older, she came to understand that the gems weren’t like normal people. She didn’t know too much as she was too young, but to her, they could do things. Really cool things. It was almost unexplainable for her young mind to comprehend, but always found herself in awe of them. As she got older, it was noticeable that Lotus had almost the same attitude as Lars, so whenever she was in a prissy mood, Lars couldn’t help but laugh, for it reminded him of himself at times. In almost no time, she got a playmate right away. Six months after Lotus was born, Steven had proposed to Connie, and they had decided to have kids of their own. They had a son, and named him Gregory, after Steven’s dad, who, you could imagine, was freaking out when he found out that his grandson would be named after him. He took after Steven in most ways, having his dark hair, and his father’s skin tone. The two were inseparable from the moment they had met, and with both of them being homeschooled, they were the only real friends they had had for a couple of years, until Steven and Connie had decided they had wanted another kid. The second time around, they had a girl, and named her Cassidy, due to Connie just really liking the name, saying if she could change her name, she would change it to that. Cassidy took after her mother, having her long, light brown hair, and, surprisingly, had some traits of Rose Quartz. Finally, just about a month ago, Steven and Connie had had their third child, naming her Nora. This time, Nora mostly took after Connie, having light brown skin, and dark brown hair. At the time they were currently in, with Lotus nine years old, that left Gregory to be eight, Cassidy to be two, and Nora to be only a month old. Being the oldest, it felt like she kind of had to take care of them, even though she knew that her Uncle Steven or Aunt Connie wouldn’t want her to feel in charge of their kids, so they always told them to be good whenever they went off exploring. Not just that, but Lotus felt different. The three other kids looked so… normal, and there she was with pink hair. At least they all looked related, but now that she was old enough, she came to the conclusion that having pink hair wasn’t something that was natural. It came from her father for sure, but she never knew how or why. Whenever she would ask the other kids, they would never know either, but when they’d ask their parents why, they would never tell them, saying that it would be better if Lars and Sadie told Lotus themselves one day when she was old enough to understand.

 

But, that was it so far. That was her whole life summed up over the past nine years she’s been alive. It was, and felt amazing. Lotus finally got out of bed, hoping not to wake her parents. They were always so fussy with her on her birthday, and she felt like that they didn’t need to do all that much for her. She crept down the hallway, walking quietly and trying not to make the floors creak. However, someone had already caught her.

 

“Caught ya!” Lars stopped her, nearly causing his daughter to shriek.

 

“Dad!” Lotus hissed. “What the heck, _why_?”

 

“ _Why_? Don’t try to act like I don’t know _why_.” He smirked. “You were born today.”

 

Lotus cocked an eyebrow. “That’s a weird way to say it’s my birthday.” She spoke, suddenly realizing what she said. She put a hand to her mouth, regretting it. “Dang it! You did that on purpose.”

 

“Hm, maybe I did.” Lars kissed her head. “Happy birthday, sweetie.”

 

“Gross, but thanks.” Lotus looked behind her father. “Uh, is mom up too?”

 

“Nah, she’s still sleeping, but only ‘cause I let her.” Lars spoke as if he’d just done something big and noteworthy. “You ever notice how cute she looks when she’s asleep?”

 

Lotus stuck her tongue out in disgust. Her parents had always fawned over each other for as long as she could remember, and the more she got older, the more it grossed her out. “ _Ew_! You’re so weird.” Lotus said almost laughing.

 

“You think _that’s_ weird?” Sadie came out of her and Lars’ room, sleepy eyed.

 

“ _Finally_!” Lotus quickly approached her mother. “Mom, dad’s being weird again.”

 

Sadie yawned. “Oh honey, he’s always weird. And besides… I’ve seen weirder.”

 

Lars turned to Sadie. “C’mon Sades, you know you like it anyway.”

 

“Well, you’ve got me there.” Sadie looked and noticed her daughter still standing there, looking on in confusion. “Hey Lars…” Sadie spoke trying to get her daughter’s attention as well. “Remember when we got stuck on the island?”

 

Lotus’ eyes widened and suddenly turned around. “Are you _kidding me_? No, _please_ don’t start—“

 

“Like I could forget!” Lars cut in. “Remember that night when we first slept next to each other?” Lars partially lied to spare his daughter’s innocence, they had slept together one other time before that, and might have gotten busy that night as well.

 

“ _Really_? Why must you do this today?” Lotus felt like she was hearing some corny love story written by her parents herself.

 

“And then I found you the next day almost on the edge of the island—“

 

“And then I kissed you!” Lars cut in.

 

Lotus let out a disgusted groan. “Oh wow, skip straight to the point this time, just perfect!”

 

Lars tried to hold in his laughter. “Sorry, did I say kiss? Silly me, I meant _made out_.”

 

“Bye, gonna vomit.” Lotus tried to escape the most awkward session of storytelling she had went through, but Lars had pulled her back.

 

“Nice try, kiddo.” Lars pulled his daughter and Sadie into a hug, feeling quite happy as he did so. Lotus let out a sigh.

 

“I take back what I said.” Lotus said. “You guys are both weird.”

 

And they couldn’t help but laugh.

 

They spent the whole morning together celebrating Lotus’ birthday, but something lingered in the back of Lars’ mind. He’d been thinking about it ever since Lotus was born, and sometimes the thought of it made him scared. It was his genetics. She was his kid, and judging from outward appearance, she clearly took after him. But it brought up the question: exactly how _much_ did she take after him? He knew he was immortal, and it was because of something in his DNA that was keeping him alive for much longer. Sometimes, it stunk hard. When he was young, he always thought being able to live forever would be the coolest; you wouldn’t be able to die, and you’d just keep on living your happy life. How wrong he was. Nine years after marriage, he hadn’t really noticed a change with his appearance or growth, and though he saw it coming, it still kind of shocked him. Despite it not being his fault, he’d never be able to live with himself if one day he found out his daughter was immortal like him. He wanted her to live a normal life. He was still debating on telling her about what happened to him all those years ago on Homeworld, but something was holding him back. Lotus already knew about the gems, and she’s only heard the stories of how they fought a great war many many years ago, but that’s all she’s really known up until now. Just stories. He wanted to tell her, especially with Lotus becoming more curious and smart, she would start to question the obvious like, “why are you pink when no one else I’ve ever seen is?” or any question along the lines of that. He was pretty sure she had already asked herself that question on more than one occasion. Then he remembered: the last time Lotus had asked why he was pink was two years ago. She hadn’t asked about it since, at least, not to him directly.

 

Then he thought about himself again. He was beyond grateful to be given a second chance but, he’d do anything to go back to living a normal lifespan, and with his new powers and enchantments, there was no telling how much longer he’d continue to live on for. It felt unfair. He just wanted to grow old with Sadie, and watch his daughter grow up before him. He didn’t want to just watch everyone he loved die while he still continued on his own. He wanted to be like all of them again. Was that too much to ask?

 

Apparently it was.

 

“I… I’ll be back.”

 

Lars got up and left the room so suddenly; he didn’t even know where he was headed off to. He just couldn’t be there right now. He felt ashamed.

 

“Uhm, what’s up?” Lotus asked her mother who was still by her side.

 

“I don’t know.” Sadie was just as confused as her daughter as to why Lars just left. “Why don’t you head off to Gregory’s for a bit? We’ll… catch up with you later.”

 

“Oh, okay…” Lotus slowly got up and left the house in complete silence.

 

As soon as she did that, Sadie went off to look for him, already having some sort of feeling where he was. She found Lars in their room, sitting on the edge of the bed. She softly closed the door. “Lars? Are you okay?”

 

“I just… I don’t know…”

 

“I know you do.” Sadie walked past the bed to close a few curtains. “You can tell me you know. It’s okay.”

 

Lars hesitated. “It’s just… I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I think you have.” He started, his voice almost shaking. “It’s been bothering me ever since Lotus was born, but…”

 

“Yeah?” Sadie was now a little worried.

 

“I’m… I’m not aging.”

 

Everything around her felt like it had stopped. She couldn’t hear one sound inside or outside, and she could’ve sworn her heart skipped a beat. _Damnit._ He was right, she _had_ noticed this over the years, she just never knew when they’d finally have this conversation, or how it would even start. Now it had started, and it seemed like today was the day that they’d finally discuss this. She exhaled. “I… yeah. I did notice.” Sadie finished closing the curtain and made her way back to the bed and sat next to Lars. “I just… never knew how to properly bring it up.”

 

“But don’t you see? This could be a very bad thing later on, especially when we get, y’know… older.”

 

In the back of her mind, she knew what he was talking about, and she didn’t like it at all. “W-What do you mean?” She pretended to not know. She had no idea why, she really didn’t want Lars to tell her herself.

 

“Well, you know, I’m not gonna get older, and I’m just gonna end up looking like this for the rest of my life. I’m supposed to be 33, but I _still_ look like a scrawny little teenager! And you… you’ll just… end up getting older without me, and, you _have_ changed, just like you’re supposed to when you get older. But me…” He trailed off. “And like, we’ll still be married and stuff, but, wouldn’t it, wouldn’t _we_ look a little bit—“

 

“Ugh, okay okay, I get it.” Sadie stopped him. “You don’t need to explain anymore, I really don’t want to think about that yet.”

 

Lars turned away from her. “But… don’t you realize?” He spoke very softly, it almost sounded like he was going to cry. “This could be bad, especially in the future. I just wanted to live a normal life with you, but now, I’m literally the exact opposite of normal.” He stopped, wiping his eyes. “I’m sorry you got stuck with me. I just made everything worse for us.”

 

“No Lars, please don’t ever say that again.” She turned him around and she hugged him. It was like she could feel his sadness, and she really wanted him to feel better about this. Just hearing him say that broke her heart. “First of all, normal is boring, Lars. Don’t you remember? We’ve literally been living a non-normal life ever since we met each other, so why start trying to be normal now? Second, I’m glad I married you. Everything has just been so fun and unexpected, even before marriage, but that’s just the best part. I’m happy I never know what’s going to happen next, because that’s just what makes all of this so interesting, and it’s what makes our relationship so interesting, Don’t you feel that?”

 

“I… guess I do.” Lars felt hopeful for a moment.

 

“Then there you go.” Sadie kissed his head and hugged him once more. “I know it’s hard not to worry about the future, especially with our tiny situation, and I’m honestly super happy you finally opened up to me about this but, we really shouldn’t be stressing ourselves out for something that’s a long ways away from now. It’s good that you’ve told me, and I’m glad we’re on the same page about this, but thinking about it too much so early will just stress us out. I hope you get what I’m saying, Lars.” Sadie held his hand as she said all of this, hoping to reassure him. “For now, let’s just focus on the stuff that’s currently happening, or is going to happen soon. Not the stuff that’s… a couple years away.”

 

Lars sniffed. “Y-Yeah, okay.” He went back and hugged Sadie. “Thank you so much Sadie, I love you so much. You’re the most wonderful person I’ve ever met.”

 

Sadie always cherished those sweet, and pure compliments Lars would give her. It happened more frequently than she realized, but Sadie loved them anyways. Those small words meant a whole deal to her, and she was glad to be with someone who loved her that much. “Aw Lars, I love you too.”

 

“And, sometimes, just sometimes,” Lars wiped his eyes, leaning up straight. “I wonder if you would’ve been happier with someone other than me.”

 

This, Sadie had scoffed at. “You’re kidding, right? _Nobody_ could make me happier than you make me, don’t ever forget that. And besides,” She couldn’t help but laugh a little again. “who even came to mind?”

 

“I don’t know… Ronaldo or something—“

 

“ ** _Seriously?!_** ” She couldn’t help but laugh once again. “Oh my gosh, that’s your best joke yet, and I’m _not_ exaggerating! W-Why would you even—“

 

“Oh, I don’t know!” Lars turned red. “He just— he- he _liked_ you for a long time, Sades! You _cannot_ tell me you didn’t notice him being all weird around you!”

 

“Oh no, believe me I did.” She grinned. “But… me and _Ronaldo_? Lars why, that’s so… gross!”

 

“Well can you blame me?! You _did_ look like you enjoyed his company!”

 

“And for a moment I did!” She stuck her tongue at him, causing him to snicker at the gesture. “But seriously, you can’t just sit here telling me that I enjoyed it _that_ much!”

 

“Haha, yeah, I guess you’re right.” Lars spoke chuckling.

 

“Oh, I _am_ right, trust me. And besides, I enjoy your company _way_ more.” She finally sat up and started walking away towards the door. “I _was_ your first kiss after all, you seriously should’ve considered where that kiss would’ve landed you in 16 years time~”

 

“My _god_ I love you so much. Seriously, you’re secretly so devious and sexy, I just—“

 

“What’s the matter? Too much to handle?” She came up close to him and teased him.

 

“Oh _please_ , I’ve handled you more times than I can count.” He smirked up at her. “I think I’m doing perfectly fine, thanks.”

 

Before he could even think, Sadie placed herself right on top on Lars’ thighs, shortening the distance between them, and _holy shit_ was it breathtaking to be him right now.

 

“Well, if you’re so confident, then how about it?” Sadie talked in a way that almost turned him on, and he was loving every second of it. “You, me, 11:30 tonight, in this bed.” Sadie cooed at him just inches apart from his sweet lips. “Unless of course you plan to ‘get a good nights’ sleep’.”

 

_Fuck, why couldn’t all her sex invitations be this… sexy?!_

“I’m intrigued.” Lars looked up at her with love in his eyes. “Should I… bring anything?”

 

“Condoms would be nice.” She grinned down at him.

 

“Mmm… you have me interested. _Very_ interested. I’ll be there.” He finally pulled her in for a kiss, not being able to resist her any longer.

 

“Try not last under ten minutes this time, ‘kay?” She smirked to herself as she finally got off of him and left the room.

 

“H- _Hey_!” Lars blushed as he called out to her. “It’s not _my_ fault _your_ moans are like, the hottest thing ever! They set me off earlier than I want to, and I can’t help it! So if anyone’s to blame here it’s _you_! You hear me?!”

  

* * *

 

_Dad jumped out of the tiny hole, and landed onto a small eyeball robot. He started hitting it with a large rock or something, and the robot was shooting lasers everywhere. But dad looks different. He isn’t pink here, and he doesn’t have a scar on him anymore. Why does he look different? And where is he? Is that Uncle Steven? He’s here too? And the Off Colours? Why is it just them?_

_“Eat this!” Dad yelled, and he stabbed the eyeball robot with the large rock._

_Blue light came from the place where dad had stabbed the robot with the rock, and then it blew up. The noise was loud, and there was smoke for a small second. Dad came from the smoke, and he was launched back into the rock where he jumped from. There was a loud crack that came from dad when he hit the rock wall, but he didn’t scream. He looked like he did, but no noise came out of him. He looked like he was in pain. Dad fell, and there was a loud thud that came from him when he hit the ground. He rolled for a moment, and then he stopped. I looked onward at him. Dad was just lying there, and he wasn’t moving._

_“Lars!” I heard Uncle Steven say from behind me. Uncle Steven then ran right through me, like I was a ghost. It felt tingly for a moment, but I wanted to know if dad was okay. I caught up with Uncle Steven and I stayed near him the whole time. Uncle Steven went by dad’s side. He called his name as he turned dad over, but dad still didn’t move. “Lars?” Uncle Steven shook Lars a little bit, hoping he would wake up. I heard the Off Colours behind me, chattering about what dad had done in beating the robots. I didn’t care right now, I just cared about dad. Uncle Steven leaned onto dad, and listened to his chest. He waited for a moment, and I did too. This had to be a dream, I thought. This can’t be real. Uncle Steven then sat up, and he started to cry. Dad still wasn’t moving. I’m scared now. Does this mean… no… it can’t be. Dad._

_Uncle Steven cried some more, and he brought dad closer to him as he still cried. I started to cry now too. I just can’t do it. Whatever this is, I don’t like it at all. As I dried my eyes with my shirt, I saw something glow. I looked up, and I saw that where Uncle Steven had cried on my dad, it began to glow. Dad began glowing. I’m very confused now. What’s happening to dad? Why is he glowing? The glowing started to get bigger, and soon everything around me had stopped. I was being sucked into the white. What is this, were my last thoughts to myself before I was fully engulfed into the white nothingness around me._

Lotus jolted awake. She had almost gasped for air, for what she saw had never scared her more in her life. She swallowed even though it was hard to, and desperately searched around her room for a clock. It was 3:12am. Her sheets were drenched in sweat, and she had never felt her heart beat so fast in her life. She felt around for the glass of water on her bedside table, and drank from it, draining the whole glass in mere seconds. She exhaled, and finally fell back onto her pillow, pulling her stuffed polar bear close to her chest once again, and was left in deep thought. _What was that dream? Why did dad die in it? Why did it feel so real, as if it actually happened?_  She didn’t know.

 

* * *

 

Lotus woke up early that morning. She hadn’t gotten much sleep with the weird nightmare she had. Her eyes stung when she tried to open them, so she let her eyelids droop, and she made her way downstairs. She found her parents already at the breakfast table, so she slowly but loudly pulled up a chair and sat in front of them. She plopped herself on the chair, eyes still drooping shut, and she groaned lowly.

 

“Uh, good morning?” Sadie spoke to her.

 

“…Oh. hey…”

 

“Sheesh, Lo’, did you not get good sleep last night?” Lars asked her.

 

Lotus rubbed her eyes. “No… not really.”

 

Lars and Sadie exchanged looks. “It… it wasn’t because of _us_ was it?”

 

“W-What? No no, it wasn’t.” Lotus snapped out of her haze and became a little more alert, not wanting to think about how… weird their parents got last night showering each other with affection. “I just… I had a nightmare.”

 

“Oh? Well, what was it about? I’m interested.” Lars told her.

 

“Hm… I don’t know if I should…” She was hesitant. The dream felt really real to her, and it was honestly scary, but she knew she had to tell someone. She looked at her father. “I… had a dream that… I saw you die.”

 

Lars dropped the fork he was holding on the plate in front of him, eyes wide, trying to hide the fact that he was surprised. He glanced over to Sadie, where he could tell she was just as equally shocked as he was. Her hand found his and they gave each other a tight, brief squeeze as a silent way of reassuring each other that everything would be fine. “I… you did?” Lars asked her.

 

“Yeah. It felt so real… it was really scary.”

 

“Describe it.” Lars told her.

 

Lotus seemed surprised. “Are you sure you want me to?”

 

“Please, I need to know what you dreamt about.” He told her in the calmest voice he could.

 

Lotus did just that. As hard as it was for her to tell her parents the horrible dream she had, they had really wanted to know, and she had wanted them to know too. When Lotus told them, Lars’ fears came true. What she saw in the dream was _exactly_ what had happened moments before he died, and the brief moment for when he _did_ die. Once Lotus was done, she almost began to cry again, but she pulled herself together once more. “I-Isn’t it strange?” Lotus’ voice broke when she talked. She swallowed once again.

 

Lars looked at his rose-coloured arm, now even more curious than before. “Yeah, strange.”

  

* * *

 

“Are you _absolutely sure_ that’s how it happened?” Pearl asked him.

 

“Positive.” Lars told her.

 

“It’s true, that’s exactly what I saw!” Steven chimed in as well.

 

Lars, Sadie, Steven and Connie were in the temple, and all the gems were present there as well. The children were playing outside on the beach, with little Nora peacefully sleeping in Connie’s arms.

 

“You’re right, this _is_ strange…” Pearl told them.

 

“Um, _hello_! Isn’t it obvious?” Peridot spoke up. “This _clearly_ has something to do with gemetics.”

 

“Don’t you mean _gen_ etics?” Lars made a face.

 

“No no, _gem_ etics.” Pearl clarified for them. “Basically gem genetics, and I think I know why.” She turned to Steven. “You see, when Steven brought you back to life, it was his part of his magical DNA that saved you. Because of this, this is why you’re pink, as Steven’s affiliated with the colour in some way: his gem. His gem powers are what’s keeping you alive, Lars, so when you had Lotus some of that DNA must’ve… rubbed onto her so to speak. Am I coming through clearly?”

 

“I guess… but, that doesn’t explain why she saw me _die_.” Lars said with still some hint of confusion.

 

“Actually it does.” Pearl noted with confidence; she knew what she was talking about. “After all it _is_ pretty obvious she took after you of course, I mean, we know pink hair isn’t exactly…”

 

“Normal.” Lars finished her sentence.

 

“Ahem… yes, right.” She breathed in and continued. “But maybe that’s why she saw a part of your past. If I am correct, Lotus saw everything through her _own_ point of view, as if she was there when it had happened. It seems she was able to see inside your head, one of your past memories, even if the one she saw wasn’t the most… happiest.”

 

“So, what does that mean?”

 

“Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? You two just have the same gemetics, and she took _a lot_ more gemetics than intended if she was able to see a whole memory like that.” Pearl explained. “The same applies to your kids, Steven, even if we don’t know how much. They may… _portray_ more human-like appearances, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any gemetics in their DNA either. You _are_ part gem after all.”

 

“And… is this a bad thing?” Connie asked.

 

“Heavens, no.” Pearl told them. “The kids may have gemetics, but they’re far from having full gem DNA. For all we know, they’re mostly human.”

 

“ _Mostly_?” Lars asked. “Are you saying they’re…”

 

Pearl nodded. “Well, you can’t have gemetics if you’re full human, can you?”

 

The room went silent for a few good seconds before Pearl spoke up again. “But trust me when I say that everything should go smoothly with their development. The gemetics only take up a small fraction of their DNA, so they’re mostly made up of human DNA. I’ll say right now, some minor things _could_ happen later on, and when I say minor, I mean _really_ minor. Nothing too serious should happen to them in their growth, so in my opinion, you have nothing to worry about.” Pearl turned to Lars. “As for immortality, I wouldn’t really consider it. For that to be a possibility, they’d have to at _least_ be half and half, but that, they aren’t.” She walked back in front of them. “All in all, I’d say this is as serious as it could get. Weird… magical things _could_ happen, but I wouldn’t worry about it happening _too_ often. Just keeping a normal eye on them will do, they _are_ just kids after all.”

 

“So… they aren’t… _hybrids_ or anything like that, right?” Steven asked.

 

“Oh goodness, no. Hybrids is such a… strong word to describe what they are. They’re just… _gifted_ , really.”

 

“Gifted?” said a confused Lars.

 

Pearl nodded. “I know that this isn’t what you’ve imagined for your kids but, having the gemetics of gems isn’t such a horrible thing. They’ll still live a normal life like you want them to, that’s a guarantee for sure. Yes, they’ll live with the gemetics, but it won’t cause them any harm, maybe just a few small hiccups every once in a while, but that’s about it. Once again, only a small fraction of them is gem, don’t forget that. Nothing past 25 percent at the maximum. The best part is, they’ll have each other.” Pearl went to the window and peered out the blinds and watched the kids play on the shore happily as the adults followed along behind her. Pearl smiled. “I think they’re going to grow up to be _wonderful_ kids.”

 

Lars smiled to himself, feeling at ease. “Yeah…”

  

* * *

 

Lotus was now in her pyjamas. She had a long day, and all she could think about was getting some much-needed sleep, especially with that dream she had.

 

“Hey, you in here?” She heard her father call her from outside her room.

 

“Yeah. Come in if you want.” Lotus told him as she climbed onto her bed.

 

He entered and he sat on the edge of her bed. “You doing okay from earlier?”

 

“Oh, yeah, I guess so.” Lotus spoke almost deadpan. She didn’t know what else to say on the matter.

 

“That’s good. I was just worried, you seemed really spooked out by it.” Lars told her.

 

“Heh, yeah, I really was.” She admitted. “It was really scary, and everything looked and felt so real.”

 

“I can only imagine.” He kissed her forehead and proceeded to leave the room.

 

“Dad? Can I ask you something?” Lotus called for him.

 

“Of course, what is it?” He stepped back in the room a little.

 

“It’s just… I know I’ve already asked this a lot when I was younger but, I just wanted to know… why exactly are you pink?”

 

It’s been a little over two years since Lotus asked this question last. Now here she was asking it to her father again. She had really wanted to know. But was she really ready for it? After the day she’d had, he felt that she just didn’t need to know the truth right now. He smiled and hugged her. “Someday, sweetie, I promise, but I don’t think you’re ready just yet, especially after the long day you’ve had. Do you understand?”

 

Lotus nodded. She respected the fact that he thought she wasn’t ready to handle it, and maybe she wasn’t as ready as she thought she was. He had promised her that one day he would tell her though, and that was good enough for her. “That’s okay. Worth a shot?”

 

Lars chuckled. “It always is. Goodnight, Lotus.” He kissed her once more and finally left the room.

 

Lotus turned to her bedside table and turned out her light. She pulled the covers over herself, grabbed her stuffed polar bear and brought it close to her, finally closing her eyes after a long and tiring day. The thought of her dream had kept her from falling asleep, however. She couldn’t help but wonder more about it. Of all the things she could’ve dreamt about her father, it was seeing him die right before her. She wondered if there was more to the dream than she was led to believe, even if she just had the dream earlier that day. She had mixed feelings. What she saw _was_ a dream, but to her, the more she thought about it, the more it didn’t feel like a dream at all. Lotus shook her head. She cleared her mind, and finally started to drift off to sleep in peace. One thing was for sure, she knew that it wouldn’t be the last time the dream would be brought up. Then, before she knew it, she was asleep once more.


	8. The Gifted Ones

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids are going to learn about their gem culture.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the wait! i wanted to wait until school and exams were done! to make it up to you guys, I decided to post not one, but two chapters today! i hope you like them, and i hope they were worth the wait! :)

“No, Lotus, you’re messing up again. You do it like this—“

 

“Ugh, for the thousandth time Gregory, I _know_ how to do it! You know, by constantly hovering over me, it’s not gonna help me get it faster.” Lotus groaned.

 

Another year had passed, and the kids were playing on the shore of the beach in the late afternoon. The sun was just about to set, and the day was almost done. Nora was playing in the sand, Gregory was teaching Lotus how to skip rocks across the water and Cassidy was finding flat rocks for the two of them. Cassidy walked over to the pair with a bunch of flat rocks in her hands and arms. She let them go and the rocks all fell to the ground. She let out a breath. “Phew, this is tiring you guys. Shouldn’t we get back home to mother soon—“

 

“We’re almost done, Cass. And like, what’s the rush?” Gregory asked her.

 

“Well, _I_ for one don’t want to get into trouble for coming home so late. Plus, I don’t like rushing home, one of us could get hurt you know.”

 

Gregory scoffed at this. “Please, how can someone get hurt just by going home? Look, if you want to go, you can go and take Nora with you. Me and Lo’ got some unfinished business to take care of.” He turned away from his younger sister who was fuming at him at this point, and met eyes with Lotus, who didn’t seem to be too pleased with him either.

 

“You know, _Greg_ , you should really listen to her. You guys live further from town than I do, so maybe you should get going now.”

 

“Um, are we all forgetting something here?” Gregory raised his voice so his sisters and Lotus could hear him clearly. “Remember who’s the oldest in the family?”

 

“Too bad you don’t act like it.” Cassidy grumbled.

 

“What was that?” Gregory turned to her and he heard Lotus start to giggle from behind him.

 

“You know, it’s a shame that you don’t play a convincing older brother, Gregory.” Lotus spoke as she walked over to Cassidy and Nora, grabbing hold of both their hands. “If you won’t take them home, I will. And I’m _sure_ that Aunt Connie would be _dying to know_ why _you_ weren’t the ones watching your younger siblings.”

 

Lotus proceeded to leave as Cassidy snickered to herself. Soon Gregory couldn’t take anymore humiliation. “W-Wait! I… I’ll come home with you guys.” He proceed to walked with Cassidy and Nora before they heard a voice call them back.

 

“Kids! Before you leave, I must tell you something!” Pearl was calling them from the porch of the temple. The kids looked at each other and Lotus spoke up first.

 

“I guess we’ll see what she wants first.” Lotus shrugged as everyone started to walk in Pearl’s direction.

 

“Fine, but she’s gonna give us another lecture about proper hygiene, you can’t blame me for not getting everyone home in time.” Gregory announced.

 

They made their way over to the temple where Pearl was waiting for them eagerly. “So kids, I’ve been waiting for this day since you were born… but I think you’re finally ready.”

 

“Ready for what, Auntie Pearl?” Cassidy looked up at Pearl with wonder and curiosity in her eyes, and Pearl couldn’t help but ruffle her long brown hair.

 

“I think you all are finally ready to learn about your gem culture.”

 

“What?! Really?” The three kids said in surprise.

 

“Yes! It’s going to be loads of fun, and you all are going to learn so much about yourselves and the small part of who you are—“

 

“Wait, hold on.” Lotus stopped them. “I’m confused. What do you mean _our_ gem culture?”

 

Everyone’s eyes went wide. “You mean your parents haven’t told—“ Gregory asked before Pearl put a hand to his mouth.

 

“Aha… what Gregory means to say is that, they want to learn about _their_ gem culture. Since, you know… they’re part gem and everything.”

 

“They are?” Lotus asked sounding seemingly surprised.

 

“Of-Of course!” Pearl lied. She was shocked that Lars and Sadie hadn’t told her about what happened to Lars and her being part gem yet. “Steven’s half gem, so, of course his kids would take after that… you know?”

 

“Ha, yeah. Hey Pearl, do you think that I could learn more about gems too? Even though I’m human, I’d still like to learn.”

 

Pearl smiled. “Oh, of course you can. I’m sure it wouldn’t be a problem at all.”

 

The kids celebrated.

 

“But remember: there’s lots of things to learn about gems, who knows how long it’ll take for you to fully understand everything you want to know.” Pearl told them.

 

“It’s okay, we’re ready to learn, right guys?” Lotus said as everyone else agreed.

 

“Well when you put it that way, let the learning commence!” Pearl paused. “Tomorrow of course.”

 

Everyone laughed, and the kids went off on their way. “Thanks Pearl, you’re the best!” Lotus called to her as her and the rest of the kids headed home.

 

Pearl felt happy. The kids she loved dearly finally wanted to learn about gem culture, and she couldn’t be happier to be the one who was going to teach them all of it over the next few years. Only one thought was left on her mind now, and it had really surprised her.

 

_Lotus doesn’t know._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> also please ignore the fact that cassidy can talk in full sentences sjfdbskfhsj she's supposed to be two years old here and i forgot about that when writing this chapter


	9. The Night That Beach City Mourned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lotus finally finds out the truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> don't have much to say before this chapter since the one before this and this chapter came out together but lars' outfit choice in this chapter was completely inspired by my amazing friend @arisuchan_! go follow her on instagram and tumblr!

“That was so awesome! I can’t believe gems just… become one being so easily!” Cassidy exclaimed.

 

Another three years had gone by and the four kids had already learned so much about gem culture in that time. They had grown up immensely and all of them had started to look older as well. The four of them were walking back to Steven’s house, as they still had lots of time to get back before sunset, so they took the longer route.

 

“Hey Lo’, you’re quiet, is something up?” Gregory asked.

 

“Nah, I’m good.” She replied. “Just tired I guess.”

 

He put a hand on her shoulder, lowering his voice a little. “You know, if something ever happens, you know you can talk to me about it, I’m always willing to listen.”

 

Lotus averted her eyes away from him feeling her cheeks grow warm. “Yeah, thanks.”

 

The two walked ahead of Nora and Cassidy, who furrowed her eyebrows when she saw this happen again. Out of all the kids, Gregory was the one who changed the most in her opinion. To her he was just her selfish older brother, so she was glad whenever Lotus called him out on the act of him being so rude to his sisters, but that was before. Now, it was clear he had changed. In those three years, he somehow started to realize what he was doing and started being more respectful to his siblings and friend, Lotus. However, Lotus and Gregory’s friendship had changed too. They always were friends no doubt, but their relationship was always a kind of love/hate relationship. They always poked fun of each other in their childhood, but when Gregory developed and attitude and ego Lotus started spending more time with Cassidy and little Nora. Cassidy had to admit to herself, she didn’t know when Gregory saw that he needed to change, but she started to see the change in him. First with her and Nora, he started to be nicer to them and tried to set that good example of being the older brother. Then he started to rekindle his friendship with Lotus, and Cassidy could tell that Lotus was impressed with the change in him. It made her happy that the two of them were good friends again, until it didn’t. During the past few months, Lotus and Gregory started hanging out more on their own, which made Nora especially upset and left out. She told her mother this, but Connie just explained that it was okay that all four of them weren’t together the whole time, and that Lotus and Gregory have been friends since birth, so that could’ve also been a factor of their recent closeness. Still, Cassidy wanted to be included too, telling them that even though she was only six years old she could still hang out with them, but was surprised to get the shutdown from Lotus, telling her the exact same thing her mother had already told her. That’s when she stopped asking, but she never stopped questioning, and now there they were, walking ahead for the third time this week. They’ve been doing it for almost four months, and Cassidy couldn’t do anything about it now. She didn’t like to think about it, but she wondered if Gregory and Lotus were to ever become a thing in the future. That would explain a lot with what was happening now, but she couldn’t stand to think about Lotus, the person she looked up to the most, with her _brother._ Cassidy admitted, he’d become a much better person, but no one’s perfect, and he was still flawed in some ways. In her opinion, Lotus deserved someone else that wasn’t Gregory, and she couldn’t see them as a couple. She swore, if they were to become a thing, she’d gladly give them the distance they would need. It’s not like she would want to see them being all romantic-like in front of her anyways.

 

They all arrived at Uncle Steven’s house and Lotus stopped outside.

 

“Hey so, what ever happened with you asking your parents about… you know…” Gregory started.

 

“I don’t know, I guess I just stopped trying.” Lotus replied in a lower tone.

 

Cassidy frowned and her eyebrows furrowed once again. She couldn’t interrupt the conversation because she didn’t want to be rude, but Gregory was the one that had the house key, so all she could do was listen. _“oh gREAT!”_ She thought.

 

“You can’t stop now, Lo’, you’ve always wanted to know what is was your parents won’t tell you, and with that dream you had years ago I thought you would’ve wanted to keep pursuing.”

 

“I’m not sure it’s such a good idea anymore.” Lotus told him. “What if it’s better that I don’t know?”

 

Gregory didn’t know what to say. “It’s all up to you, and remember what I told you, ‘kay?”

 

Lotus smiled at him. “Yeah, I will. Thanks for this.”

 

Silence filled the air for two seconds before Lotus hugged Gregory, and not even another second had passed before he returned the hug. Cassidy’s mouth dropped, but the two were too busy to even notice. That was the first time they had hugged since Gregory had started to change for the worst. That was a breaking point for her. She told herself not to interrupt tender moments like this but:

 

“grEGORY I AM HUNGRY!” Cassidy forced words out of her mouth doing her best to hide her true emotions while ultimately failing in the process. “you have the key, can you p l e a s e open the door??”

 

Gregory shrugged and opened the door. Cassidy picked up Nora and dashed into the house, running away from all the mushiness. “See ya Lotus!” She called out.

 

Lotus waved while she covered her mouth with her hand, holding back her laughter. Gregory smiled and rolled his eyes, turning his head back to Lotus. “See you tomorrow.” He then disappeared into the house and closed the door behind him. Lotus was now left alone. She turned around and started to make her way back to her own home.

 

Lotus walked away from the house and started to make her way back to her own home. It felt lonely walking by herself after a pleasant walk with Gregory, but a part of her wanted to get home, she felt like she hadn’t seen her parents in forever.

 

* * *

 

“Hey guys,” Lotus quickly walked through the door and started to make her way up to her room before she saw her parents from the corner of her eye sitting on the ground of the living room with photos all over the floor. “Uh, what are you guys doing?”

 

“Just reorganizing the photo album for our wedding.” Lars spoke holding a bunch of photos in his hands, holding one of the smaller square photos in his mouth as he frowned at the photos. They’ve been doing it for almost an hour and frankly it was getting quite boring. Lotus saw what he was wearing, it was a big sweater that looked unbelievably comfy. It almost made her laugh, she only saw her dad in such sweaters once or twice before, it was always a treat to see him wear one of his special sweaters. “Jesus, how many pictures did Steven take?” The small photo fell out of his mouth as he spoke.

 

“Oh, who knows, Lars.” Sadie responded dully. She looked up at Lotus. “We’re almost done sweetie, you can head off to your room and come back down in a minute.”

 

“’Kay.”

 

Lotus went up to her room and flung her book bag onto her bed. She then flopped onto it, letting out a deep sigh. She then turned and opened up the book bag, pulling out the book that Pearl had made for each of the other kids. It was everything they needed to know about gems and gem culture, and Pearl, being the mom figure that she was, called it “Pearl’s Guide to Gems and Gem Culture”. It was rather amusing to her, she admired Pearl a lot.

 

Lotus opened up to a random page of the thick book and landed on the page about palanquins. She examined the diagram that Pearl included below the name, taking in how detailed it was. The information below read that a palanquin was usually very big and tall, most of the elites were tall which was why most palanquins were designed that way. Lotus wondered what it would be like to come across a palanquin in real life; she wondered how huge it would be compared to her.

 

“Lotus! Please come down!”

 

Lotus heard her mother call her and headed back downstairs. She looked around the living room and saw that the floor was all clean and not a single photo was in sight. “Oh, wow. That was fast.”

 

“So, how was your day?” Sadie asked as she sat on the couch. Lars followed her and sat next to her, opting Lotus to sit on the couch across from them.

 

“It was fine?” Lotus questioned where they were going with this, they only asked how her day went every once in a while. “We just learned more gem stuff, that’s it.”

 

“And how are Steven’s kids? Did you walk home with them?”

 

“Yeah, just like we usually do. We walked to their house after though.”

 

“Well, that’s fine.” Sadie replied when Lars slightly nudged her arm as he took a sip of his coffee, making odd eye gestures at his wife. “And uh… how’s Gregory?”

 

Lotus woke up from the rather boring conversation. “Again? Why do you guys always ask about him? He’s fine.”

 

“Just curious.” Lars looked at his daughter from his coffee cup as he continued to drink from it.

 

Lotus scrunched her nose, remembering the hug her and Gregory had shared earlier. She shook her head. “Well, if there isn’t anything else, I’ll be in my room—“

 

“Lotus, there actually _is_ something else…” Sadie told her before she was able to leave the room.

 

Lotus had stopped and looked at her parents in the eye. “Oh, okay…” She made her way back to the couch across from them and plopped herself on it, crossing her legs. “What’s up?”

 

There was a brief pause between her parents. “Well… it’s just, I think it’s time we should finally tell you as to why I’m—“ Lars started.

 

“… why you’re pink, right?” Lotus cut him off and finished his sentence.

 

“Uh, yeah, that’s it.”

 

“Oh.” She couldn’t believe that her parents were finally about to tell her the information she wanted to know for so long.

 

“I thought you’d seem more… interested?” Lars told her.

 

“No, it’s just… I don’t know if I really want to know why anymore. I mean, you were obviously keeping it a secret for so long for a reason, maybe it might be better if I don’t know.”

 

“Sweetie in all honesty, I feel like it would be better if you did know why. I’ve wanted to tell you for so long but I never knew when the right time would come. I wanted to be sure that you could handle it first and now I think you can.” Lars admitted. “Please?”

 

She exhaled. “Okay, fine.” Lotus said. “Maybe I should know anyways, even if I might not like it.” She looked back at her parents. “So? How does the story start?”

 

Lars and Sadie looked at each other as they held hands. “It happened 20 years ago.” Lars began. “You _do_ know that not all gems are good, right?”

 

Lotus nodded.

 

“There were two gems that came to space that day, and Aquamarine and a Topaz. They came to earth, kidnapping all of these… _innocent_ people.” Lars said through grit teeth, he had never talked about the incident much after he came back to earth, and the more he thought the more he realized how horrible it actually was. “Nobody knew where the missing people had gone, and the people that were taken were gone almost without a trace. Out of the citizens that were kidnapped, those people included your mother and I.”

 

Lotus’ eyes widened. “How’d you guys get out?”

 

“Steven and the gems arrived and started a fight with the two gems.” Lars explained. “They wouldn’t give up so easily, though. To save everyone, Steven told those gems that he was Rose Quartz.”

 

“Uncle Steven’s _mom_? But, she wasn’t alive when Steven was that age, and wasn’t she a war criminal?”

 

“Exactly.” He stated. “To save all of us, he gave himself up to those gems, saying he was Rose Quartz, the one who started the war.”

 

“And they believed him?”

 

“Yes. Everyone they kidnapped, they let them go. Although one thing happened. For the moments me and the other people were on the ship, I ran off and hid. I never ending up getting off the ship.”

 

“Yeah, and for the time, everyone was sad that Steven gave himself up, and you were stuck up there as well, both of you having no way of being able to return on your own. It was the night all of Beach City mourned, I think.

 

“What?! So you were in space then!”

 

“Yeah, I couldn’t believe I ran off instead of escaping like everyone else. The only thing I was happy about was that Steven was with me, so me and him went through it all together. Soon, the ship arrived on the gem planet homeworld and Steven was put on trial. The rulers of the planet, the diamonds, were there at the trial as well. I watched it all, it was really something else.”

 

“Didn’t you and Uncle Steven try to escape?” Lotus asked.

 

“Oh yeah, we eventually did. We took one of the diamond’s palanquins and we escaped in that.”

 

“Woah. So then what happened?”

 

“Then these robots found us and started attacking us with lasers, so we ran until we found a safe place to hide from them. That’s when we met the off colors and they took us to their secret safe place. They’ve been hiding from homeworld for millions and millions of years. Not long after, the robots found us again, and then I—“

 

Lars stopped and recalled how he died. It was something he didn’t think about often, not like he wanted to.

 

“Then...?” Lotus tried to continue for him.

 

“Lars, you don’t have to continue…” Sadie assured him.

 

“No it’s… it’s fine. I-I want her to know.” Lars told them. He breathed in and out before continuing. “Then… I didn’t want anyone else to get hurt, so, I started beating up the robots.”

 

“Were you scared?” Lotus asked.

 

Lars chuckled. “I was completely terrified.” He then continued with the story. “They shot lasers all over as I attacked them and soon there was only one left. I grabbed a big rock and I stabbed it, hoping it would do something. It did though, that’s when… it blew up.” Lars turned and made eye contact with his daughter, almost with tears in his eyes, but he pushed those feelings aside, thinking of how to tell her what had happened next. “I… was in that explosion.”

 

Lotus’ eyes went wide. “But… you survived?”

 

“After the robots were defeated, Steven went up to me to see if I was still alive, but, I wasn’t.” Lars spoke in a much softer tone.

 

“You… weren’t…” She shook her head. “But that doesn’t make any sense,” Lotus told herself out loud, refusing to believe it. “You, you’re here now… but that doesn’t explain why you’re pink.”

 

“Lotus… I really did die. Steven, he… he brought me back to life.”

 

 _Gem magic_. Everything clicked, it all made sense now. “You died… and you were brought back to life?”

 

“As strange as that may seem, yes.”

 

It all made sense, but it didn’t. She really couldn’t believe it. _That_ was why her father was pink her whole life. She connected the dots herself. He wasn’t pink before, but since that time on homeworld, he was. Just then, right when she thought that was a lot to take in…

 

“T-That’s what I saw in my dream four years ago then! That’s why I have pink hair…” Lotus tried to refrain herself, but mildly failed. “Steven’s magic made you pink, and now because of that _I’m_ part pink! Because of the magic I was able to see what happened to you… how you _died_...” She put emphasis on the word, turning her gaze towards the ground. “I’ve wanted to know about this for so long… the fact that you kept something so important from me…” She inhaled and exhaled, finally turning to her parents. She felt the back of her eyes sting, seeing her parents faces full of guilt. “Do… do you know how long I’ve felt _unsure_ and out of _place_ with myself?”

 

“I’m sorry.” Lars whispered just enough for her to hear him. Him and Sadie felt awful.

 

Lotus sat back down on the couch across from them, her head down. “Don’t worry about it, it’s fine. It’s just… a lot right now. You were right you know, I wouldn’t have been able to handle it when I was younger. I’m glad you waited until now.”

 

“Are you okay?” Sadie asked her.

 

“I’m fine, I guess.” She admitted. “I just can’t believe it.” Lotus dried her eyes of the few tears that still remained there. “I’m sorry, you weren’t finished your story… was there anything else that happened after?”

 

Lars softly smiled. “Well, I think you’ll be glad to know that there _are_ some happy parts to this story as well.”

 

“Good, cause I don’t really want to feel sad anymore.” She admitted almost laughing, relieving herself of her sadness and confusion.

 

 “So, after Steven brought me back to life, we soon discovered that turning pink had some weird side effects.”

 

“What do you mean?” Lotus asked.

 

“Well, my hair is pretty much a portal to—“

 

“A portal?! Where does it lead to?” Lotus asked surprised.

 

“Well, if you went inside my hair,” Lars then saw his daughter prepared to jump into his hair. “which you won’t be doing just yet, you’d end up in this weird pink dimension, and if you went out the other side of the portal, you’d be transported to wherever Lion is.”

 

“That is so cool!”

 

“Yeah, and since Lion was on earth at the time me and Steven were in space, he could go through my hair and tell everyone back on earth that I was okay in space.”

 

“Oh, but wait, how did you and the off colours get back to earth?” Lotus asked.

 

“Since we were on homeworld, we eventually found and stole a spaceship. But… along the way I also found some cool space outfit that came with this really cool cape, so me and the off colours stole all of that and we fled into space.” Lars enjoyed himself telling the best part of the story. “Pretty soon, the off colours started calling me captain, so that’s what I became, and then we were wanted criminals on homeworld for stealing the spaceship we were using to get home! Pretty awesome, huh?”

 

“This is the coolest story I’ve heard my whole life.” Lotus said shocked. “Since when were you so _cool_?!”

 

“Hey, I was _always_ cool, but yeah, the time we were up in space was pretty great.” Lars crossed his arms and smiled to himself. “Although, it was nothing compared to what was on earth, though.”

 

“What was on earth?” She asked.

 

“Your amazing mother, that’s what.” He gave Sadie a smirk and playfully rolled her eyes.

 

“Why did I _even_ ask.” Lotus jokingly rolled her eyes, but smiled to herself. “Oh yeah, you two were separated, how long was it for?”

 

“We hadn’t seen each other in months, it was _torture_ , at least for me it was.” Lars said as he turned to Sadie.

 

“Hey, I missed you too you dumb nerd!” Sadie hugged his torso tightly. “Do you know how badly I wanted you back here with me? Thank goodness you landed on earth and showed up right when me and the band were playing our concert here in Beach City.”

 

“So what _did_ happen once you guys saw each other again?” She couldn’t believe she was asking them that.

 

“I died! Again!” Lars stated.

 

“Lars no—“ Sadie laughed.

 

“Geez, it sure felt like it, though. My heart dropped to my stomach when I saw you for the first time in a while.” Lars leaned back and smiled.

 

“Yeah, mine did too, obviously!”

 

“Hey, remember when we saw each other and we finally kissed and started to date, Steven wouldn’t stop freaking out for a whole fifteen minutes?” Lars almost laughed recalling the moment.

 

“How could I forget?” Sadie told him. “Classic Steven, I bet he was waiting forever for us to happen.”

 

Lotus smiled watching them. Over the years, she’d come to appreciate her mother and father’s strong love for each other. It seemed as if their love for each other hadn’t diminished or faded at all, they still were in love as much as they had seemed to be all those years ago. She wished she could’ve seen them reunite; as they were describing it, it sounded like the most amazing thing to see happen.

 

“So, what happened after that?” Lotus asked with a smile.

 

“Well, your mother and I dated for a few years, she got pregnant with you, I married her and then we had you and, well, the rest is history.” Lars told her.

 

“Wow.” Lotus said in amazement. “That really _was_ worth the wait to hear!”

 

“Well, I’m glad you thought so.” Lars said. “So, were you glad that you found out everything you wanted to know?”

 

“Of course, but that’s the least of my concern right now, I’m just glad to be here with such cool people.” Lotus said as she hugged her parents.

 

They hugged her back. Everything was great for Lotus now, she had a good relationship with her friends, her family, and she was right where she wanted to be, which was on earth.

 

That is, until she wasn’t.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol whoops sorry about the cliffhanger


End file.
